While we all love getting fresh air and sunshine, sometimes, you get stuck inside. When rainy, cold weather, a hot summer afternoon—or a pandemic—keeps you and your kids inside. Outdoor winter activities and summer activities can be hard to do when the weather’s not cooperating. While it can be tempting to let your toddlers spend the day in front of the TV, there are plenty of creative, non-screen time activities to help your kids learn, grow, and play well in the comfort of your own home. 

Do they like cooking activities? do you know how beneficial is cooking activities for your toddler? https://staging-otpark.temp513.kinsta.cloud/cooking-with-kids/

Here we listed several cooking activities with their benefits for you that your toddler may participate in.

Making Slime with kids

Let’s just say that kids really love the fantastic sensory experience slime gives. Squishy and stretchy things like homemade Slime simply beg to be touched!

Tactile activities such as Slime making are a treat for the senses. Toddlers engage their sense of touch! For so many kids, Slime can be such a, calming relaxing, regulating activity. That’s exactly why they gravitate toward playing it!

Toddler’s often like to keep their hands busy, helping them to focus. Also, Slime is an awesome stress-relieving tool, and it makes a beautiful brain break! Kids who need extra help with sensory processing work will love Slime too! Slime is for everyone.

Aren’t you always looking for ideas to further strengthen your connection with your kids?

What about doing it by engaging them in something they love to do. Show them that you’re interested in what they love. And, of course, enrolling in your child’s activities as a parent would give them a sense of trust in you!

Immediate connection/ The kid(s) will know you’re going to get them and want to be part of their world. Who knows they might even come and talk to you earlier when having other problems.

Making Slime is not just something that needs to be achieved. It’s a great path to fun and safe interactions with your children, but it’s all about how you see slime making. If you think it’s dumb and pointless, you ‘re missing the chance of a connection. When you run with it and know how to make awesome homemade slime right alongside them.

Is Slime Safe to Play with?

In a nutshell, yes, Slime is perfectly safe for most kids.

It’s important to:

-Understand how much of each ingredient you need, and stick more or less to that ratio. Although slimming will often require fine-tuning and more activator or glue, a clear understanding of each ingredient’s approximate quantities is necessary.

-Track your children as they’re making the Slime. As with any activity, keep an eye on your children to work with the materials safely.

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Drawing coloring and painting

The freedom to explore and express creativity through art is one of the best gifts you can give your growing toddler. From coloring and finger paints to playdough and sidewalk chalk, artistic play is the perfect way to foster creativity in your little one—and develop lots of other important skills along the way.

Art is not only fun for little ones, but it teaches too. Creative play helps babies and toddlers develop crucial early childhood skills like sensory and fine motor skills, problem-solving, cognitive development, self-confidence, and even early math skills like recognizing shapes, sizes, and patterns.

When you’re sitting down to make art with your kiddo, keep in mind that it’s the process, not the final product. (Although all those masterpieces will definitely liven up the front of your refrigerator!) Working on an art project together is a great time to work on language skills by talking to your toddler about what they’re making or asking them open-ended questions about their work. It can also be super empowering; there’s nothing quite like watching a 2-year-old rock their independence by dipping that paintbrush in every.single.color.

Before you and your little Picasso get to work, you might want to keep a few things in mind:

• Dedicate a workspace for creative, artistic play. It can be anything from a small desk in the corner of a playroom to a larger space with a craft table or easel; just make sure there’s enough room for your little one to spread out.
• Prep for mess. If cleaning finger paints out of your carpet doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, be sure to invest in the right dress and a drop cloth for the floor. You can thank us later.
• Supplies are key. Give your little one free reign to make art whenever the inspiration strikes. (While you keep an eye on them, of course!) This means you’ll need to stock your art space with safe, kid-friendly supplies like child-safe scissors, glue sticks, and easy-grip crayons and markers. We also love lining tables with rolls of craft paper for maximum creativity!
• Keep your activities age-appropriate. For younger toddlers from 12-18 months or so, this often means lots of supervised sensory play (shaving cream canvas, sand play or finger paints) and simpler projects (sponge paints or large chalk), while kids closer to 2 may start to enjoy more traditional art projects like coloring, painting, collages or modeling clay.
• Don’t forget to have fun! Toddlers love to express themselves, and art is a great way to empower them to do just that. Let them explore, create, and play.

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Telling stories

“If you want your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want them to be brilliant, tell them more stories.”- Albert Einstein

How often do you sit down with your children and tell them stories? Is your answer no, or rarely? You’re missing out on a key part of their growth – the amazing benefits of storytelling that affect their mental functions and developments in more ways than you expect.

When you tell your kid a story, there’s a magical moment when he sits enthralled, his mouth open, his eyes wide. The stories that the child hears shape their universe. When they listen to stories, something really important is being triggered – their imagination. They learn to go beyond their environment, their walls,  into faraway places, and explore the minds of extraordinary people.

You can increase children’s memory capacity by asking them to remember the stories you’ve already read or asking them to remember where you stopped the day before. Try to let your child share his emotions, opinions about the characters, and the expression of hatred for evil in the stories.

If you want your toddler to listen actively and deeply understand the story, you have to read the stories emotionally. Adapt the pitch of your voice to the feelings and emotions conveyed in the tale. Using active body language to express ideas in a meaningful way. Storytelling parents are found to have a more emotional bond with their children. 

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Developmental milestones are barometers for skills that each child should be able to do by a set age. They are the primary standard that kids are measured by to make sure they are developing appropriately. Each skill builds upon one another. When a milestone goes unmet or is delayed, several problems can ensue. Developmental milestones are skills that you should always consider as a parent of kids 0 to about 6 years old.

Typical milestones categories include Social-emotional, Movement, Language/Communication, and Cognition/Problem Solving. Here at OT Park, we have compiled a list of milestones for children ages 0-6 years old in the areas of:

• Gross motor
• Grasp patterns
• Scissor skills
• Toilet skills
• Home chores
• Dressing skills
• Scissor skills
• Pencil grip development

So, how do you know if your child is developing appropriately and meeting age-appropriate milestones? After downloading your OT Park Milestone checklist, based on your child’s age, try skills in the category younger age-level and then the older age-level to see what your child can do. If you realize that your child is having difficulty completing age-level activities or younger, reach out to your pediatrician for next steps to better help your child. OT Park is gearing up to launch telehealth services and will be available and honored to help your child in any way that we can. If you find that your child is meeting the age-appropriate milestone, this is great. Keep working on the next skill.

Either way, providing your child with what we OTs like to call the “just right challenge,” or a challenge that isn’t over or underwhelming, can help your child build confidence, strength, and endurance without making them feel as though they are incapable!

Keeping an eye on your child’s development is vital for their future success and well-being!

Also, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

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“There is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses,” – Aristotle

Did you know that when your baby crawls around a room touching objects, playing with toys, listening to you singing songs, or putting things in his mouth, he’s doing a lot more than just playing? Toddlers use their senses to learn about and explore their environment. As a parent, you can enhance this learning by providing a positive sensory experience.

Sensory play or experience would then allow your child to interact with his surroundings and learn about his world. 

Once your child is born, his brain is ready to gain knowledge about the world. They’re actually learning long before they walk and talk. This learning takes place through hearing, touch, taste, sight, smell, and movement. They hear our voices, enjoy bouncing, chew toys, and touch everything they can.

The more positive sensory experiences your baby has, the stronger newly built brain connections become. Sensory play not only has a positive effect on your child now, but also helps to promote learning and development even in adulthood.

Researchers have found that a baby who is not given an appropriate set of opportunities and is kept in a swing most of the day or is kept in a dark, quiet environment for long periods can have his learning and brain development stunted by lack of exposure to sensory stimuli. 

These sensory systems don’t develop simultaneously, but rather in a specific order that does not vary.

This is tactile > vestibular > chemical > audio > visual. The infant has five senses functioning at different levels at the time of birth. 

Building blocks essential to an efficient sensory system

• For effective sensory processing, all sensory systems need to work together. It should be recognized that the sensory system is indeed composed of seven senses; these sensory systems process information as the building blocks to most of the individual skills.
• Visual Sense: This is the ability to understand and interpret what is seen. The visual system uses the eyes to collect information about the contrast between light and dark, color, and movement. It receives sensory information from the environment by light waves that stimulate the retina then by the optic nerve to the visual cortex on the back of the brain.
• Auditory Sense: is the ability to interpret information that is heard. The auditory system uses the external and middle ear to obtain sound information. They collect information about volume, pitch, and rhythm to the brain’s side parts by the 8th nerve.
• Olfactory Sense is the ability to interpret smells by Receiving the chemical makeup of particles in the air to determine if the smell.
• Gustatory Sense: it is the ability to interpret information regarding taste in the mouth using specialized buds on the tongue’s upper surface.
• Tactile Sense: It uses skin receptors to receive sensations of touch, such as fine touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, and pain. This is the first Sense to develop (in the womb), and, as such, it is vital for the overall neural network.
• Proprioceptive Sense is the ability to interpret where your body parts are in relation to each other. It uses information from the nerves and sheaths of the muscles and bones to inform about body posture and movement by muscle contraction, stretching, bending, straightening, pulling, and compression.
• Vestibular Sense: is the ability to interpret information relating to movement and balance. The vestibular system uses specialized channels in the inner ear to transmit information on movement, change of direction, change of position of the head, and gravitational pull.

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Most human critical periods exist within the early years postnatal, which is why sensory play is especially important for young children​.

A critical period is a phase in which brain cell connections are more plastic and receptive to the influence of a certain type of life experience. These connections, called synapses, can be formed or strengthened more easily during this period.

A recent study has linked the lack of sensory play and negative home environments, especially during children’s first three years with several developmental problems, including:

• Poorer language development by age three.
• Later behavior issues.
• Deficits in school readiness.
• Anxiety, Aggression, and depression.
• Impaired cognitive development at age three.

The Importance of Sensory Play

Building Nerve Connections

Research indicates that sensory play builds nerve connections (synapses) in the brain pathways that contribute to a child’s ability to perform more complex learning tasks.

Cognitive Development

Children first learn to understand new things through their senses. Every time they encounter something that is sticky, cold, or wet, for example, they gain a better understanding of which types of objects have these characteristics. Your child will then begin to make connections between things that have similar properties.

Strengthening Fine Motor Skills

Sensory play often involves touching, pouring, pinching, sorting, and moving actions. Toddlers primarily use their hands to explore, building on their fine motor skills, which will later be used for writing, zipping jackets, buttoning clothes, and tying shoes.

Enhancing Language Skills

By exploring new smells, tastes, and textures through sensory play, children can learn new ways to describe things found in the world around them. For example, a rock will be more than a rock when they feel it – it’s either smooth or rough or cool to the touch.  Also, your kids begin to describe food as sweet, salty, spicy, or crunchy.

Sensory Play Is Calming

You may have noticed that your kid is calmer after bath time or after a particularly rough session of jumping around the room, crashing onto his bed, banging into furniture, or pillows. This type of sensory activity calms children as it helps them manage their internal discomfort, whether it is boredom or restlessness.

 Early taste experiences 

 Early life nutrition is an important factor affecting later health. Your child’s food habits are shaped in infancy and are tracked back to adolescence and beyond, meaning that supportive eating activities are important to prevent eating disorders later in life.

Italian researchers from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Milan have shown that early repeated experiences with different tastes and supportive feeding increase the children’s desire to try new foods and greatly decrease the risk of having a picky-eater kid in a healthy social environment. In other words, you, as a parent, can modify the innate food preferences of your child! 

By paying attention to these things, your baby will gain a lot of benefits and get exposed to various wonderful activities that will really help him develop properly! 

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References:

 Blair C, Granger DA, Willoughby M, et al. Salivary cortisol mediates effects of poverty and parenting on executive functions in early childhood. Child Development. 2011; 82(6):1970-8.

Son S, Morrison F. The nature and impact of changes in home learning environment on development of language and academic skills in preschool children. Developmental Psychology. 2010; 46(5):1103–1118.

De Cosmi V, Scaglioni S, Agostoni C. Early Taste Experiences and Later Food Choices. Nutrients. 2017;9(2):107. Published 2017 Feb 4. doi:10.3390/nu9020107

Howard-Jones P, Taylor J, Sutton L. The Effect of Play on the Creativity of Young Children During Subsequent Activity. Early Child Development and Care. August 2002:323-328. doi:10.1080/03004430212722

Rosenzweig MR, Bennett EL. Psychobiology of plasticity: effects of training and experience on brain and behavior. Behavioural Brain Research. June 1996:57-65. doi:10.1016/0166-4328(95)00216-2