Toddler Sensory Activities

It is my experience with my own children as toddlers that they loved swapping the role of being “teacher” and often they would like to play the games over, but with me being blindfolded or making the guesses instead of them.

Smell Bottles
Lay out various bottles of items on a tray. Ideas are: Peanut Butter, perfume, lemon juice, coffee, tea and vinegar. Blind fold your child or ask them to keep their eyes tightly shut. Some young children do not like to be blindfolded as it brings a sense of disorientation to them.

Get them to sniff each bottle, one at a time, and tell you what they smell.

Taste test
Be sure when choosing this one of my toddler sensory activities that you choose the items carefully taking any childhood allergies ito consideration.

Take a teaspoon for each of the above bottles but leave out the perfume and take a small amount of each food substance onto individual spoons.

Again ask your toddler to close their eyes or if they are happy to be blindfolded you can do that. Let them taste each spoon in turn telling you what they have tasted.

You can show them their taste buds in a mirror and explain to them that this is how they taste their food.

Feely bag
Take a cloth bag or pillow case and fill it with various items. Ideas are: a spoon, familiar small toy, cauliflower floret, piece of wood, wax crayon, hair brush.

Without allowing your toddler to see, get them to dip their hand into the bag and feel for one item. Before they remove the item have them guess what it is.

Sound game
This one of my toddler sensory activities can be quite challenging to younger toddlers so be sure to choose sounds they are familiar with.

Collect a box of different items that make sound. Ideas are: pot and spoon, bells, plastic paper that crinkles, a toy that makes a sound, a canister of rice.

Ask your toddler to sit with their back towards you. Using one item at a time make its sound and then ask your child to guess what you were using.

What is it?
There are many books in the library that have themes where only a section of an item is show on one page and your toddler has to guess what the larger object is. See if you can find one of these to work through with your toddler.