If it seems like your baby is into everything, she is! Infants explore the world around them through their senses.

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Sensory exploration is a major reason why your baby plays with her food, shakes a rattle, or gets drawn in by a brightly-colored pattern. So how can you stimulate your baby’s senses through play? First, let’s take a moment to understand why sensory exploration is important for your child’s development. Then, we’ll move on to ways to play.

Learning Through Experience

Your baby is constantly learning. Unlike an older child (or yourself), she can’t sit down, listen, and learn new information. Developmentally, your child learns best through experiences. She’s ready to discover everything around her – and needs to use her senses to do so. This may include anything from squishing carrot puree between her hands to find out how it feels, to shaking her stuffed bear to hear whether it makes a noise or not.

Language And The Five Senses

Keep in mind that even if your little one doesn’t have the words yet to describe what she’s seeing, doing, and experiencing, she is still learning. That said, sensory-based activities offer an excellent opportunity to get your child talking. Okay, so she won’t be speaking in complete sentences at six months simply because you take the time for some sensory play. But your baby needs to hear new vocabulary to build language skills – and sensory play certainly helps with this.

How? As your child explores a bowl of yogurt, you can give her the words that she’ll need later on (when she’s a toddler or preschooler) to describe it. This includes “texture” words such as squishy, soft, or smooth, along with “smell” words such as sweet.

Sensory Play Ideas

Take a look around you. Chances are you have more than a few sensory play experiences ready to go. There’s absolutely no need to go out and spend money on fancy developmental toys for this type of play. A few easy options include:

• Soft, mushy foods (such as mashed potatoes or pudding)

• Fuzzy stuffed animals

• A shallow bowl with water

• Play-sand in a shoe box

• Modeling clay (your child doesn’t have to sculpt with it, she can simply explore)

• Crumbled pieces of scrap paper

• Pieces of fabric (especially those with bright colors or vibrant patterns)

Let your child take the lead. As she crawls, scoots, or sits in front of you, encourage her to pick and play with her toys or other sensory objects. Even the floor (or carpet) under her speaks to your child’s senses! Always supervise her and make sure that all sensory items are baby-safe. Avoid anything that poses a potential choking hazard, such as dried beans or clay beads.

Your Photo Shoot

You’re at the photo shoot and there are toys galore surrounding your baby. Whether we’re talking about toys that you’ve brought along with you, or the toys or props that we have on hand, your baby is pretty much all set when it comes to mid-shoot sensory play. If you’re wondering whether your baby’s quest to explore through her senses will in some way throw off the session, don’t stress. Yes, your baby will want to play with the toys or props. But that’s not a bad thing.

A little sensory exploration during the photo shoot engages your baby, and keeps the learning process going. She’s experiencing a new environment, and wants to make her own discoveries. Grabbing a new toy (or prop) is just her way of saying, “Hey, what’s this? It looks like fun!”

As a bonus, the excitement and engagement that comes from sensory play (during the photo shoot) will show up on your child’s face – and in the pictures!

Visit Ashley Low Photography page to find out more about Ashley’s work.

_{This post was first published on Ashley Low Photography blog and has been reposted on Executive Lifestyle with the permission of the author.}

_{Edited by Michelle Sarthou
Image credit: Ashley Low}

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