One way you can provide some tactile input (touch sense) is to incorporate textures into everyday play experiences. Tactile stimulation is important for developing awareness and helps our bodies (hands in particular) discriminate differences in the way things feel. This is a foundation for more advanced fine motor skills to come. It starts in the womb when baby feels the umbilical cord or find their mouth with their thumb. Babies learn through touch...not only through their hands but their mouths. Their mouths send lots of information to their brains about the properties of objects. It also feels good to chew and suck which helps calm the nervous system. If you have a baby, offer lots of toys appropriate for chewing and toys with a variety of textures. Don't forget to play with temperatures too. We like to warm up a aromatherapy rice bear and cuddle with it. We also like to play with ice in bags or sealed cups. Allowing baby to self-feed or "play" with their food is so important. YES ITS A MESS. But, they are learning so much through touch, taste and smell.
This is my daughter at 6 months. She did not have teeth yet but I gave her a really cold carrot to suck and mouth on. She got to experience the taste and it helped relieve sore gums. If your baby has teeth and is this young you may want to try one of those mesh teethers to prevent choking on a hard cold carrot. She also painted with pea mash in this picture :)
This is finger painting with yogurt and a drop of food coloring. This was taken at 8 months and this is also when we discovered she had a dairy allergy. (minutes after this picture was taken she was covered in hives boo). We now use coconut milk blueberry and vanilla yogurt for food painting.
As you baby gets older and understands when you tell them not to put something in their mouth, you can start to introduce other objects. When my daughter was 11 months we pulled out the dried pasta and pinto beans. This was done under constant supervision and she did try to taste a few times but she quickly understood these things were for playing not eating. (i still watch her like a hawk). A fun way to encourage play is to present these things with familiar toys and containers.
If you do have a little one who likes to mouth a lot, I suggest giving them things they can chew on while playing. A pacifier or in my daughter's case, her beloved keys. We place the beans/rice in shallow plastic container and put a vinyl table cloth underneath which makes clean up so much easier. Give baby lots of containers and shovels.
Older kids like this as much as the younger ones but to step it up with them you can incorporate games into tactile play. For example, instead of just sitting to do a puzzle you could hide puzzle pieces in a box or bag or rice. Have them reach in to find a piece before putting it on the board. Here is an example of how we played the game Perfection with shapes hidden in a container of Flax seed. (would recommend rubbing hands with baby powder before this one because the seeds stick to sweaty hands)
Other things you can use in your tactile boxes: cotton balls, rice, beans, flax, water beads, pebbles, bird seed, flour, corn starch, oatmeal, pudding, wet pasta, dry pasta, and corn kernels. Really, anything you can think of!! Feel free to share your ideas here! :) or check out the Facebook page and share a picture of your little ones playing with their tactile boxes
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