During Chicago summertime, our children love to play and splash in water! Water play can be a great way to address play and sensorimotor development! It’s a great way to build fine motor, gross motor, and play exploration skills.  

Materials: 

• Container 
• Water 
• Optional Tools: spoons, measuring cups, sand shovels, sand sifters, pails, castle molds, fish nets, tongs, funnels, beakers, eye droppers, spray bottles 

 Expanding Play with Water 

Fine Motor 

• Grasping – Playing with a variety of utensils allows children to practice a variety of grasping patterns! Spoons, measuring cups, shovels, sifters, and fish nets can help with grasping, wrist, and forearm movements necessary for pre-writing and writing!  
• Bilateral coordination – Funnels and castle molds are great for promoting bilateral coordination! Both require two hands in a natural and organic way.  
• Hand strengthening – Tongs, eye droppers, and spray bottles work well to build hand arches and hand strength necessary for many daily tasks and handwriting! 

 Visual Perceptual 

• Visual attention – Looking and exploring within a sensory bin can build sustained visual attention necessary for daily routines! 
• Visual scanning – Digging, exploring, and playing games such as iSpy are a great way to practice visual scanning necessary for reading and writing! 
• Hand-eye coordination – Finding items, scooping, and exploring allows for children to build visual-spatial and depth perception skills necessary for hand-eye coordination! 

 Executive Functioning 

• Sustained attention – A fun way to practice concentrating on an activity for as long as it takes to finish, even if there are other distracting stimuli present.
• Processing skills – Using, handling, and searching/locating items and tools within a sensory bin help to build processing skills. Noticing and responding to peers and adults can not only help with social participation, but processing as well! 
• Memory – Playing games like iSpy and Simon Says while playing with toys and tools in a sensory bin can help to build short term and working memory skills! 

 Sensory  

• Touch and texture play – For children that are avoidant of sensory experiences, playing in a water bin can help to build exploration and tolerance in a fun and engaging way. For children that seek out sensory information, playing in water can help to improve overall regulation and attention throughout the day! 

 Play 

• Engagement – Sensory bins are a fantastic way to expand play exploration! Practice imitation skills such as: splashing, scooping, pouring, and blowing bubbles. 
• Looking – As mentioned previously, playing in water can promote a variety of attention (e.g. sustained, joint, shifted, divided) and visual perceptual (e.g. scanning, discrimination, depth perception, etc.) skills.
• Sharing – Playing together in a sensory bin can practice social skills such as sharing space, toys, and attention! 
• Transitioning – Water play can be a highly preferred play activity! Transitioning to and from this activity can be difficult for children. Prepare your child for the transition. Practice using ‘first, then’ language, 2-choices, transitional items, and timers to help your child understand when to start and terminate the activity.