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Sensory Play Equipment

Encouraging Sensory Play

Sensory play equipment appeals to some of the main senses, such as touch, sight and hearing. Including sensory elements in your playground makes the play experience that much richer by engaging the child more fully in play. In this article, we’ll go over the benefits of sensory equipment and how it positively impacts some of the body’s sensory systems.

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Sensory Play Equipment

The Benefits of Sensory Playground Equipment

Develop Senses

Sensory play can help with the development of the senses, fine-tuning children’s ability to discern textures, colors and other differences in the world.

Build Skills

Sensory play often also builds balance, fine motor skills and additional skills.

Soothes & Calms

This type of play can be soothing and calming for children.

Encourages Curiosity

Sensory play can encourage curiosity, as senses are what help children explore the world.

Boosts Creativity

This type of play is a lot of fun for children and can encourage creativity.

Promotes Education

Sensory play sets the stage for more complex forms of learning.

Supports Inclusion

This type of playground equipment helps children who have sensory processing disorders, such as autism, engage in comfortable play.

Inspires Learning

Sensory play encourages hands-on and active learning.

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Sensory Play Equipment

How to Include Sensory Components in Your Playground

Sensory equipment enriches the play experience for children of all ages by engaging a child’s sight, hearing, touch and vestibular senses. By adding sensory elements to your playground, children enjoy a fun play experience that has a host of benefits.

Explore the many ways to engage the senses on your playground:

Young children with curly hair climbing on playground netting

Sensory Play Equipment

Sight

Engage the sense of sight with fun and colorful playground equipment in different shapes. The Colossus® Slide, for example, has a big red surface that stands out, as well as an unusual wavy shape. When trying to engage the visual sense, look for playground equipment in bright colors, contrasting colors and unusual shapes. Activity panels such as the Finger Maze and Find the Faces help strengthen eyes, and playground pieces such as N-R-G Builders® offer lots of colors and shapes to please the eye. This playground structure also has the equipment to appeal to touch and other senses.

Young girl playing with vibes playground equipment

Sensory Play Equipment

Hearing

Engage the sense of hearing with playground musical instruments. Musical playground equipment, such as Vibes lets children make noise. Beat Blocks let children create sounds and appreciate rhythm. The Talk Tube lets children make noise and talk to friends far away on the playground, which helps develop listening and social skills. This gives children with autism, or other sensory processing disorders a great spot to play while allowing them to avoid overstimulation, making your playground more inclusive. It also lets children experience the contrast between sound and quiet.

Young boy walking through playground equipment touching the railing

Sensory Play Equipment

Touch

Encourage tactile play with playground equipment appealing to touch. Playground equipment with texture can help children engage the world with touch. For example, the Slalom Slide has grooves for an unusual slide experience and also includes a bright color and fun shape for visual appeal. The Colossus Slide offers four different sliding paths, which creates a unique, tactile sensory experience each time its used. The Braille Panel lets kids learn how to “read” the alphabet by touch. This panel is also a bright color and includes printed letters, so it can appeal to the visual senses and even help children with literacy. It can be a fun way to make your playground more accessible, too.

Children weaving through playground structure traffic cones

Sensory Play Equipment

Vestibular

Encourage vestibular by including playground equipment which is physically challenging and encourages children to become aware of using their bodies for movement. The Horse Spring Rider and other motion equipment let children learn how to move their bodies in different ways and lets them explore different physical sensations related to movement. Motion equipment and climbers can also help build balance and physical strength.

Sensory Play Equipment

Contact Little Tikes Commercial To Learn More

If you’d like to learn more about creating playgrounds that appeal to a child’s senses, contact Little Tikes Commercial. We can help you design and buy a playground that will thrill children and encourage their development and creativity. We have design and financing options to make creating and paying for your playground simpler. We offer a full range of support to ensure you can build a great playground.

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Note: Little Tikes Commercial is aware of the debate in the autism community over the use of identity-first (autistic person) and person-first (person with autism) language. While there is no language that fits both sides of the debate, we know the choice is a highly personal one, especially for individuals in the autism community. Little Tikes Commercial uses a combination of person-first and identity-first language.