Play Dough Play

 Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop

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Perfect For Proprioception Sensory Input & Fine Motor Skills

Welcome to another great week of the Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop! I love Fridays and our chance to show off some great fine motor activities for kids happening over here! Hands-on play really facilitates fine motor skills work. Learn through play, practice through play, and develop life long skills through play! Fine Motor Skills for us is hand work, strengthening the hand muscles and working on finger grips/grasps that will prove so useful as he gets older!

How Is Play Dough Great For Sensory Input & Fine Motor Skills?

Kneading, rolling, punching, smoothing, flattening, and other ways your child may manipulate play dough are awesome for proprioception sensory input as well as strengthening hand muscles. Proprioception is simply,  sensations surrounding joints and muscles to bring about awareness of the body. Liam really enjoys lots of pushing, pulling and heavy movements. I have really begun to notice this during his play dough play and how he uses his play dough. While he is getting much needed sensory input he is also strengthening his hand muscles for all important fine motor activities. (Please note that play dough is of course a tactile sensory play material too so make sure your child is comfortable playing with it. Start with a small amount if you are unsure.)

What Have I noticed About Our Play Dough Play?

• Liam ENJOYS using his rolling pins, hammers and other play dough tools the most! Especially this big heavy one we have!
• Liam ENJOYS smooshing and digging through play dough or burying things deep in the play dough to find afterwards.
• Liam ENJOYS flattening play dough and pushing it out if it is placed in a pan. He enjoys standing over it and pushing down hard on it.
• Liam LIKES to fill up dough extruders and push with all his might to get the dough out
• Liam does not care for cookie cutters to cut out shapes
• Liam does not care to decorate play dough.
• Liam does not care to sculpt with play dough
• Liam LOVES big movements and a big hunk of play dough is perfect!

How We Make Play Dough Work For Us!

I have stopped trying to make play dough set ups that don’t really work out. I have started providing him with the tools he needs to really enjoy his play dough experience and get from it what he needs. He gets proprioception sensory  input and I get him to work on fine motor skills! Here’s our latest set up and he was so excited by all our rainbow play dough!

Play Dough Sensory & Fine Motor Skills Tray Set Up

I love to make my own play dough. We used to buy it but it never does the job. I love the way ours feels and looks and smells! All our awesome play dough tools are easy to find, and I always keep them handy!

Play Dough Proprioception Sensory Input Play

He rolled, flattened and smooshed each color into the cookie sheet! We have a selection of rollers and hammers to use but he also loves his hands as tools!

Play Dough Fine Motor Play

This is a great activity for color sorting and working on fine motor skills. Picking up buttons and pushing them into the different colors and burying them was lots of fun. This was a nice independent play activity while I was working around the kitchen or at my computer. He chatted about hiding them and such.

When he was all done, he had to find them all and essentially clean up the activity. Lots of pulling and pushing the play dough around to find all the buttons. Great proprioception sensory input and finger grasp skills as he removed the buttons!

I feel happy that I have found out what he really enjoys to do with play dough. Play dough is such a great and easy resource to keep on hand for all types of play!

15 More Play Dough Play Ideas 

Fine Motor Fridays Blog Hop

Sensory Nest Building from Still Playing School

Painting with Carrot Shavings from House of Burke

Loose Parts Play For Toddlers from Powerful Mothering

Ultimate Guide To Scissor Cutting Resources from Lalymom

Amazon Links Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate Associate. I receive a small compensation for any purchases through my site. ALL my activities are always free and fun! 

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