Tactile sensory games to explore with your hands

Touch plays an important role in both the development of children’s communication skills and their ability to participate in physical activities. Even if this sense is often thought of as the stimulus perceived only by the hands, touch includes any input registered by the skin of the whole body , therefore also by the feet. Therefore, every time the child touches something, the brain receives a message, assimilates information, makes decisions.
This is why it is the first sense with which children learn to know and communicate with the world and the first one that helps them bond with their parents.

In the first months of life, babies love to be touched and cuddled. To stimulate the newborn’s sense of touch, parents can hug, touch, massage and palpate their baby’s skin. The best moments to do this are the bath and every moment of change and freedom.

As they grow up, the little ones use touch to explore themselves: around the 4th month they put their hands in their mouths, touch their faces and feet and then move on from 6/7 months on to grasping objects and exploring them.
In this phase it is possible to offer them activities and games to stimulate the sense of touch.

Tactile sensory games that help stimulate the sense of touch

Following the indications of the Montessori method, the best  sensory games for children  are homemade ones,  i.e. built with materials, objects or foods that children see mom and dad use every day. But while it’s true that building DIY toys is pretty simple, it’s also true that not all parents may have the time or skills to create them on their own.

For this reason and to guide you in choosing the tactile sensory games to offer to your child, I thought I’d suggest both games to build at home and to buy (which is the most suitable solution in case you have to give a gift).

Tactile sensory books

Tactile books are those little books, made of fabric or rigid cardboard, which have smooth, rough, soft, furry and so on elements and which are really useful for stimulating touch.

If you like do-it-yourself and have some manual skills, you can build a tactile book on your own  using sheets of felt or felt on which to sew or glue soft or rough, noisy or mobile elements, in solid colors or in patterns that children they can touch, caress, rub.

If, on the other hand, DIY is not your thing and you prefer a sensory book to buy, here are four sensory books suitable for stimulating the sense of touch. They are all very cute and friendly, have rigid pages and elements to touch and explore with your fingers and hands.
Where to find them:

1. Tactile book follow with your finger
2. Tactile book who is hiding
3. My first caress book
4. Touch and feel Animals of the world

---

Tactile sensory carpet

The most suitable children’s mats for stimulating the sense of touch are those sensory mats which have parts in relief which are sensorially different surfaces to touch, caress, lift, move.

As with tactile books, the do-it-yourself solution is also possible for mats. Just sew a padded mat with scraps of colored fabric on which to sew or glue scraps of fabrics and surfaces with different textures, wool threads, different fabrics to the touch.

The simplest alternative to DIY is to buy a sensory mat like the one in the photo, which has raised parts to stimulate touch and other sound-type game elements.

Touch panels and tablets

Sensory panels and tablets are games made of wood where it is possible to fix objects and materials capable of arousing curiosity in children.

Smooth , corrugated, rough, cold and hot, hard and soft, furry and velvety surfaces obtained from pieces of paper and cardboard, sandpaper, wood, marble, iron, fabrics, canvases and small pieces can be attached to the panels and tactile tablets . of carpet, threads and ribbons, and so on. Children will be stimulated to touch, caress and explore with touch, recognizing the differences.
If you like building them at home we talked about them here → How to build Touch Panels
While if you prefer to buy ready-made tablets you can try these:

1. tactile memory game ;
2. thermal sensory tablets .

Tactile sensory cards

Tactile sensory cards are a little more practical than wooden tablets, but they have the same purpose: to stimulate the sense of touch. You can build DIY sensory cards with materials you find at home. Simply cut out rectangles of cardboard and stick your favorite materials on top. All types of fabrics and papers, feathers, pieces of sponge, cork, but also foods such as legumes, coffee beans, and so on, are fine, which children will have to touch, explore, learn to recognize.

As an alternative to DIY, I recommend these two nice games on the sense of touch:

1. The Montessori style sensory box ,  which contains: 5 tactile cards for soft, smooth, pungent, rough, sticky and 20 thematic cards to associate with the tactile cards that will help the child develop rich and precise language.
2. The tactile cards with animals game that contains a wheel with 6 different materials and 18 different tiles. The children will have to turn the arrow, touch the material that is indicated (which should represent the fur of the animals) and look for the corresponding animal tile in the bag.

Tactile games on stereognostic sense

The term ” stereognostic sense” means the ability to recognize objects through the simultaneous help of the sense of touch and palpation. The exercise takes place in the absence of visual and auditory information, using only tactile information such as texture, size, spatial properties, temperature of objects. As we understand, therefore, the thing goes far beyond the mere development of the tactile sense. For this reason, the children to whom this type of game is offered are already older (3+).

Tactile games of this type can be built at home simply with the use of cardboard boxes or simply cloth bags. Inside you can put the most varied objects that children will have to recognize by simply touching their shape and palpating their characteristics. Here are some examples of homemade games:

1. Mystery box do da te
2. Mystery bag fai da te

If you don’t want to try your hand at DIY and prefer a faster solution, here are two nice motorcycle games that you can buy on Amazon:

1. The wall of touch is a really fun challenging Montessori-style game. Various items are placed in the fabric bag behind the wooden wall. The children, putting their hands inside, will have to find out what they are touching.
2. Tactile recognition bags is a very nice game that stimulates children to recognize objects by touching them. Also very nice to be fixed to the wall in the bedroom.

To learn more about the world of the senses, you can also read:

• sensory games to stimulate the sense of taste
• sensory games to stimulate children’s eyesight
• fine motor activities and games: activities to stimulate children’s manual skills
• sensory games do it yourself