We’ve just hosted our very first Valentine’s themed baby event! It was lots of fun and we had so much going on for you and your little ones.

There are so many benefits of themed Sensory Activities for Babies, and lots of different fun and easy ways to engage with your child’s senses and development!

In this blog, we wanted to share some of the ways we implemented these key development stages through fun Sensory Activities! (Valentine’s themed!).

When observing the children whilst they were engaging with each Sensory Activity, we noted how different ages interacted with the resources.

This helps us understand how each resource and activity can benefit and impact different age ranges. Here’s what we found…

When engaging with the TTS Rainbow Glow Arches, we noticed babies aged 0-6 reaching out for each arch, grasping with their hands and fingers. This contributes to their fine motor skills.

A baby’s fine motor skills may include shaking, grasping and banging toys on the surface which you can see on the video below!

As the baby reaches for the glow people, and grasps with both hands, hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness skills are being used.

In the video, the babies are reaching out for the objects and bringing them to their mouths, another way to promote their motor skills.

Using resources like the TTS Rainbow Glow Arches and the TTS Glow People, helps stimulate different senses and attracts your baby’s attention as they reach out and explore by touch. Reinforcing these important fine motor skills.

During the 6-12 month stage, we can see children developing their physical skills. This can be sitting up alone, reaching out and grasping objects and moving toys from hand to hand, and understanding ’cause and effect’ resources.

To strengthen your baby’s physical development, you can place recourses by their side, to encourage them to reach and grasp; consequently improving your baby’s sense of coordination and balance.

As you can see in the video below, mum is placing the TTS glow toy beside her little one, which encourages him to reach out and grab it, then placing the resources in a line!

The child is beginning to lean into their cognitive development as he starts to group the different glow people. Sorting and matching helps with thinking and problem solving skills.

Children aged 6-12 months may start to understand cause and effect, such as pushing a button and seeing the resources light up!

By 6 months, you may notice your baby starting to grasp objects, reaching one hand at a time. Examples of a baby’s fine motor skills include grabbing resources, shaking them and banging them against a surface.

In the video, you can see Lottie grasping onto the wooden toy with her hand, and as she begins to move her arms, shaking and banging the toy onto the tuff-tray.

This all reinforces her fine motor skills. She is demonstrating her gross motor skills as she lays on her tummy, lifts her head up to look, and moves her arms and legs around.

Playing on the floor and ecnouraging them to reach and swipe at objects, all contributes to their motor skills.

The different tactile shapes provide a sensory experience for babies. They can examine the diferent textures and shapes of each object, stimulating their touch and feel sense. Exploring the smooth surfaces of the pebbles, and the different sides to the geomeric blocks.

As children get older, we can see the differences in the way they interact with each resource. At this stage of development we can see more advanced physical and cognitive skills.

Toddlers will be learning to sort object in different ways. This might be recognising and creating diferent patterns or groups. Thinking logically as they put things in an order or sequence. Groups could be based on size or shape!

Here we can see their mathematical skills start to develop. Contributing to their focus and concentration, and important thinking skills.

Stacking activities are brilliant for a child’s fine motor skills. Toddlers will be working on mastering their coordination skills, learning about balance and strength. We noticed as the older children were playing with the red stacking arch toy, they were able to use the different arches to stack and create a tower.

This demonstrates their ability to control movement and hand-eye coordination. Cause and effect is also demonstrated as the tower gets knocked down.

By exploring cause and effect, children learn to think logically and make connections between actions and outcomes. Allowing them to practice problem-solving skills along the way.

The messy play tray promotes sensory development by offering a unique sensory experience for babies!

In the clip below you can see Lottie reaching out for the scoop after mum offers it to her. She grasps it with her hand and then acts out the pouring motion, evidently causing the rice to tip on herself!

Here, Lottie is showing an understanding of her cause and effect, what happens when she does a certain action – in this case, pouring!

These all attribute to both her phyical development (fine motor skills) and her cognitive development (thinking skills).

At this stage of their development, a baby’s gross motor skills will be demonstrated as they learn to sit up by themselves. You can see in the video the babies were quite happy to be sat in the messy tuff-tray!

Encouraging little ones to reach out with their hands, and use their senses to explore, touch and feel the different textures of the rice.

Touch & feel activities allow the exploration of new materials, sparks imaginative play and enhances curiosity, all of which aligns with the EYFS Curriculum.

During our toddler session, we noticed children were demonstrating much more advanced skills. Children were able to utilize the TTS Potion Bottles with a more accurate and precise pouring motion.

As you can see in the clip below, the little boy is using a tool to scoop up the rice and transfer it to the bottle. Using his fine motor skills to grasp the scoop, carefully transfer from one object to another and then complete the pouring motion accurately.

Overall, this showcases his more developed and refined fine motor skills.

Messy play can be an outlet for creative thinking and imaginative play. You can see in the background of this video, a little one has used a toy digger from the role play area, and implemented it into the messy play activity.

As she pushes her digger through the rice, she is effectively mark-making and creating patterns. Mark-making is an important part of a child’s development. These early marks pave the way for foundational skills in literacy and creativity!

In the second half of the clip, Jonah is demonstrating his gross motor skills as he sits upright in the messy play tray, and uses his legs to push and kick! You can see him pick up the potion bottle and lid, and grasp onto it as he swivels around in the rice, then successfully places the bottle back down!

This is a great example of toddlers using their motor skills, furthering their physical development. 

In this picture you can see how this little one has taken the lid from the potion bottle and used the rose petals to fill it up, and then put the lid back on top when he’s finished. This demonstrates fantastic, fine-motor and creative thinking skills!