I need help!
Do you miss the days when you could drop off your baby at daycare or your kiddo at preschool? As much as you love your kids and being around them, there’s always a bunch of things you need to accomplish. While someone else responsible and capable had them you would go to work, or keep up the house, or did chores, or took care of one of the million and one other things that needed to be done.
These days, for the most part, it’s all the same. Your demanding schedule hasn’t changed. You have to put in the hours to bring in the bacon, the house needs to be maintained, and chores and other important tasks are waiting to be taken care of.
But now that schools and daycares have closed, you have your little one basically every hour of every day. What do you do?
How can you get it all done, and take care of your child at the same time?
Is it now justified to just plop them in front of a tv screen or let them play with your tablet or smartphone and hope it doesn’t have too much of a negative impact?
Here’s an excellent suggestion: why not use sensory bins?
What’s a sensory bin?
Sensory bins have been used by speech therapists for years for a bunch of reasons. First of all, they’re really easy to make. Find a good-sized container: clear plastic usually works best, but you can use just about anything (and it doesn’t have to be big…you can use what you have on hand). Then fill it with a base material, like sand, or beans, or shredded paper…really anything that can fill up most of the container and is safe for children to interact with. And then place objects inside that are safe for kids to use, that would keep them interested and want to play with…more on this later.
Using the senses
As the name implies, sensory bins are tools used to engage the senses:
- Touch (engage with the base material and the objects inside the container)
- See (look at all the different objects, shapes and colors involved)
- Hear (play with different types of materials that can produce different sounds)
- Taste (depending on the type of sensory bin)
- Smell (depending on the materials used)
Speech therapy uses
So, what’s the point of using a sensory bin? Well, speech therapists use sensory bins for a number of reasons. Just a few of them are:
- A way to keep a child engaged during a particularly difficult session
- A way to reward a child during a session by hiding something they could look for and find in all that base material
- Practice following directions (Grab the dog. Now hide the cat.)
- Give examples of spatial concept (Over/under left/right)
- Identifying things (What is that? Tractor. And that? Dinosaur.)
- Practice adjectives (fluffy/slimy/smooth/hard/heavy)
- Practice social skills (eye contact, playing together)
Other uses
Sensory bins have other uses as well. Sensory bins are a great way to keep kids entertained and engaged, without having to resort to screens (apps and educational programs can be good for kids, but you can’t deny that five hours watching YouTube can have negative consequences). Also:
- Sensory bins can help a child work out their emotions: children who are upset can learn how to become calm again after using a sensory bin, and then do this again the next time they get upset
- Sensory bins help with fine motor skills: picking up small marbles, or black beans, or even grains of sand can help a child build up their fine motor skills (just one of the things teachers look for in gauging kindergarten preparedness)
- Research has shown that stimulating the senses encourages and promotes brain growth, which leads to a better understanding of complex tasks
- Engaging the senses promotes better memory
Types of sensory bins
No two sensory bins are alike. Well, they don’t have to be. Any type of base material can be used. You can even use water as a base material because as we all know most kids love splashing around and getting wet. You can make sensory bins based on seasons, or on themes, and fill them with all types of objects…really, sensory bins are only limited by your budget and imagination. That being said, you can definitely make a sensory bin on the cheap and still have it as effective as you want it to be.