13 Totally Amazing Benefits of Messy Play!

Children learn and develop important skills through play. Messy play is usually unstructured and focuses on exploring textures and materials with no end goal or structure. It is all about exploring a child’s environment and learning new skills!

1.       Messy play encourages children to use their imagination and explore their environment.

2.       It is a sensory experience! It fosters awareness and understanding of the world around us.

3.       Messy play encourages communication with others, so it is a very social activity and can help promote social skills.

4.       When children are swapping items such as sand toys or playdough cutters, they are learning negotiation skills as well as sharing with others

5.       It can be an amazing outlet for emotions such as anger and frustration.

6.       When playing in sand by drawing or pouring children are strengthening their muscles in their arms to assist with gross motor skills.

7.       Messy play is a great way of developing fine motor skills as well as promoting hand-eye coordination! It can even provide opportunities for developing pre-writing skills.

8.       When children explore their creativity in a non-judgmental environment, they are practicing problem solving skills and being innovative.

9.       Children can learn about turn taking and making friends.

10.   Sorting items such as balls of playdough into piles of different shapes and sizes then counting them helps with early mathematical development.

11.   Messy play can help increase a child’s confidence!

12.   It can even help children to develop spatial awareness.

13.   Messy play is fun!

Try not to be discouraged if your child initially does not want to participate in messy play! Some children may want to get use to the idea of getting messy and may benefit from gradually introducing them to the world of messy play before they are comfortable participating in messy play, but the benefits are worth the effort and yes even the mess!

OT’s provide tips and strategies to help make learning fun so that children achieve their therapy goals.

If you have any questions or would like to book a consultation, please do not hesitate to contact me at info@otsm.com.au

Thank you for visiting this blog! And remember to stay tuned for our next blog.