This post was last updated on 3/16/2026. It was originally published on 8/3/2020.

From the time they’re born, kids learn about their environments and the world around them through sensory play. 

Sensory play includes just about any activity that stimulates a child’s senses through new and exciting experiences. Research shows that sensory play in the early years of child development helps build neural pathways that will be needed for more complex learning tasks as your child grows. 

Overall, the benefits of sensory activities for early childhood development are well-established. Sensory play also supports language acquisition, cognitive development and problem-solving, social interaction and emotional skills, and both fine and gross motor skill development. While expanding their own skills and capabilities, kids also start to develop knowledge about objects and materials in their surroundings.

In this blog, we list some of our favorite sensory activities for infants and toddlers across all seven senses of the human body. We’ll also explain how each activity works and which areas of sensory development receive the greatest benefits.

What are the Seven Senses?

Many of us grew up learning about the five senses of the human body, but some of us are surprised to learn that there are really seven senses that kids must develop to maximize their wellbeing in life. These include:

1. Seeing – Recognizing colors, shapes, letters, words, numbers, body language and other cues in the environment.
2. Smelling – Recognizing and identifying different foods, plants or materials in the environment.
3. Hearing/Listening – Recognizing sounds in the environment, understanding what they mean and learning how to respond.
4. Touching – Recognizing different textures, learning to identify objects by their shape and material, and differentiating between objects that are safe and not safe to touch.
5. Tasting – Recognizing different tastes and the foods they belong to, identifying good and bad tastes.
6. Balancing – Perceiving body movements in relation to gravity and weight, learning movements to maintain balance and prevent falling.
7. Body Awareness – Recognizing the position of the body and how it moves in three-dimensional space, exercising greater control over the body.

With these seven senses in mind, let us explore 20 different sensory activities –10 for infants and 10 for toddlers – that parents and child care providers can use to encourage learning through sensory exploration and play.

14 Sensory Activities for Infants

1. Hanging Mobile

Overview: A hanging mobile over a baby’s crib isn’t just for decoration, it provides an early source of visual stimulation and sensory play that helps your infant develop vision skills. 

Why it Works: Infants in the crib need visual stimulation to develop vision skills – they need something interesting to look at. A hanging mobile provides a bit of color, motion and reflection in their environment that stimulates the eyes and mind. Parents and child care providers should replace the hanging mobile every few months and play with the baby by touching or moving the mobile to capture their attention.

Sensory Development: Seeing

2. Smiling Faces

Overview: Take out family photo albums and show your infant child pictures of smiling faces. Point to the faces in each picture so your child notices the smiles. If you have family pictures on the walls at home, look at them together with your child.

Why it Works: Before kids are old enough to understand words, smiles represent a loving response that helps your child feel safe and secure in the world. Learning to recognize smiles in their environment helps kids develop their sense of security and belonging while building their visual skills.

Sensory Development: Seeing

3. Singing Songs 

Overview: Singing songs together with your child can help them develop listening skills from an early age.

Why it Works: Singing with your child offers a range of sensory development and cognitive benefits. Kids develop their listening skills by hearing you sing and trying to mimic. They also learn concepts like tone and rhythm and develop their language skills.

Sensory Development: Listening

4. Mirror Games

Overview: Play mirror games with your infant. Position a mirror so they can see their own face or body and interact with their reflection. Help them learn that the reflection in the mirror is theirs.

Why it Works: Infants are in the process of developing self-awareness and learning more about their environments. Mirror games can help infants develop their visual skills. As they get older, play by asking them to point to their eyes, ears or nose, or practice making funny faces.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Body Awareness

5. Sensory Bottle

Overview: To make a sensory bottle, take an empty water bottle and fill it with materials of your choice, then use non-toxic glue to secure the cap and prevent spills.

Why it Works: Sensory bottles can provide diverse sensory experiences for kids based on what you choose to put inside. Marbles, sequins and glitter mixed with water provide a sparkly effect like a snow globe that’s visually stimulating. Kids play with the sensory bottle by holding, turning and shaking it.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching

6. Texture Board

Overview: A simple texture board with different materials can provide diverse sensory stimulation as infants develop their sense of touch.

Why it Works: Kids learn about their environments through the five senses – especially touch. New textures are exciting for infants who have never experienced them before. Experiment with different materials for your texture board, including cotton balls, tin foil, felt paper, string, beads, rocks, shells, leaves, buttons, sponges and wood.   

Sensory Development: Touching

7. Sponges and Water

Overview: A small tray with water and a few sponges make a fun sensory activity for your infant child.

Why it Works: Sensory activities for infants need to be fun, safe, and simple – especially at the age where kids learn by putting things in their mouth. Sponges and water tick all the boxes here – your baby can splash in the water, practice picking up and squeezing sponges, and have fun getting wet as they develop their body awareness, object exploration skills, and sense of touch.

Sensory Development: Touching, Body Awareness

8. Ice Cubes in a Bowl

Overview: A handful of ice cubes in a baby-safe bowl with some water is a simple and fun activity with plenty of opportunities for sensory development and early learning.

Why it Works: Your infant can have fun splashing in the water, develop their fine motor skills by grasping slippery ice cubes, and feel the difference between warm and cool temperatures. As kids get older, they can learn about phase changes (melting and freezing), floating and sinking objects, air bubbles in the water, and more. Kids love doing sensory activities with ice and water, and parents love the low cost, minimal clean-up requirements, and rich learning opportunities these materials can provide.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching

9. Musical Toys

Overview: Simple musical toys help your infant develop an interest in musicianship as they develop their motor skills and senses of listening and touch.

Why it Works: Listening to music helps kids develop their sense of hearing, but playing a toy instrument helps a child develop agency, release pent-up energy and build their creative skills. Learning to play with different instruments like a xylophone or baby guitar helps develop coordination and sense of touch.

Sensory Development: Touching, Listening

10. Make Oobleck with Cornstarch and Water

Overview: Mix a cup of water with around two cups of cornstarch and you’ve got Oobleck – a special type of fluid that’s rock-hard when you squeeze it but runs like water when you let go.

Why it Works: Oobleck is fun to make and fun to play with. Kids can grab it and squeeze it to feel it become hard in their hands, then release their grip and watch it flow back into the container. In doing so, they develop the sense of touch, fine motor skills, and experience new textures. Oobleck is also safe for kids to put in their mouth (though it doesn’t taste good and could hurt their tummy if they eat too much). 

Sensory Development: Touching, Tasting, Seeing

11. Soft Texture Exploration

Overview: Gather a collection of soft fabrics with different textures and spread them out on a clean, safe surface. Gently guide infants to touch and explore the different materials, allowing them to grasp, rub, and experience the various sensations. Rotate the fabrics and observe the infant’s reactions, supporting their exploration with gentle encouragement.

Why it Works: This activity supports critical cognitive and physical development by stimulating neural pathways through tactile exploration. As infants touch and feel different textures, they begin to develop important sensory processing skills, build neural connections, and learn about cause and effect through their sensory experiences.

Sensory Development: Touching, Seeing

12. Edible Sensory Bins

Overview: Create a safe, contained sensory exploration area using a large, shallow tray filled with soft, edible materials. Spread out cooked pasta, soft cereal pieces, and cut soft fruits like banana or steamed apple. Encourage infants to explore the materials with their hands, feeling the different textures, temperatures, and shapes. Supervise closely to ensure safe exploration and prevent choking.

Why it Works: This activity provides a multi-sensory learning experience that supports fine motor skill development, hand-eye coordination, and early cognitive processing. By allowing infants to explore food textures in a controlled environment, they develop sensory discrimination skills and begin to understand cause and effect through tactile and taste exploration.

Sensory Development: Touching, Tasting

13. Water Play Station

Overview: Set up a controlled water exploration area using a shallow tray with a small amount of lukewarm water. Provide soft, safe cups of different sizes and soft sponges. Guide infants to pour water, splash gently, and explore the properties of water. Use a waterproof mat and have towels ready for quick cleanup. Ensure constant supervision and maintain a safe water level.

Why it Works: Water play is a critical sensory activity that supports cognitive development, introduces basic scientific concepts like volume and cause-and-effect, and helps develop fine motor skills. As infants pour, splash, and interact with water, they learn about liquid properties, develop hand-eye coordination, and engage multiple sensory systems simultaneously.

Sensory Development: Touching, Body Awareness, Seeing

14. Color Mixing Sensory Bag

Overview: Create sealed sensory exploration bags by filling large ziplock bags with clear hair gel and adding drops of different food colors. Seal the bags securely with clear tape, ensuring no leakage. Place the bags on a white paper background to enhance color visibility. Encourage toddlers to press, squish, and move the bags, watching how colors blend and create new shades. Supervise closely to prevent bag puncture.

Why it Works: This activity introduces foundational color theory and scientific exploration in a safe, contained environment. Students develop fine motor skills through pressing and manipulating the bags, while simultaneously learning about color mixing, cause-and-effect relationships, and visual perception. The controlled sensory experience supports cognitive development and early scientific thinking.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching

14 Sensory Activities for Toddlers

1. Smell & Guess

Overview: Parents hide scented materials in opaque containers. Toddlers are encouraged to smell the inside of the container without looking and guess the smell. 

Why it Works: Smell & guess is a novel and exciting game for young kids who love to learn while being challenged. Scented oils like lavender, vanilla extract and peppermint extract can be used, along with fresh items like cinnamon sticks, garlic, lemons, vinegar, flower petals or ginger.

Sensory Development: Smelling

2. Pretend Tightrope

Overview: Pretend tightrope is a simple game to help toddlers develop a sense of balance. Parents set down a rope or string on the ground and toddlers play by walking in a straight line along the string without stepping off.

Why it Works: Toddlers are growing rapidly, starting to walk, and ready to explore and interact with the environment in new ways. Pretend tight rope is a fun game that promotes body awareness and builds your child’s skills and confidence for more difficult physical activities in the future.

Sensory Development: Balance, Body Awareness

3. Salt Tray Writing

Overview: A tray full of salt is a great way for toddlers to practice drawing shapes and making letters as they develop visual/spatial skills, language skills and sense of touch.

Why it Works: When toddlers start to recognize symbols like shapes and numbers, a salt tray can help them practice drawing those symbols before they learn to work with a pencil and eraser. They can use a “magic wand” to draw in the salt, or just trace with their finger. A little shake of the tray spreads out the salt so they can start again.

Sensory Development: Touching, Seeing, Language

4. Finger Painting

Overview: Finger painting gives your toddler the opportunity to use their imagination and be creative while learning through sensory experience. 

Why it Works: Finger painting incorporates many different senses. They develop their sense of vision by choosing colors. They develop the sense of touch while mixing paints by hand. They use vision and touch while painting a picture. They develop the sense of hearing by listening to parents for help and feedback. They also develop fine motor skills, coordination, and creativity skills.

Sensory Development: Touching, Seeing, Listening

5. Sandbox Games

Overview: Sandbox games include things like building a sand castle or moving piles of sand with scoops, buckets, shovels and other toys. 

Why it Works: Toddlers are learning how to manipulate their environment and surroundings using different tools. Parents can encourage play by hiding objects in the sand for toddlers to find or teaming up to build a sandcastle.

Sensory Development: Touching

6. Sensory Table

Overview: A sensory table is a surface with bins that parents can fill with different objects to provide sensory learning opportunities for their young kids.

Why it Works: Sensory tables are versatile. Parents can choose objects by color (yellow objects – a banana, a lemon, dandelion flowers, yellow felt or cloth balls, a rubber duck, etc.), or by type (nature objects – leaves, bark, pinecones, dirt, grasses, flowers, pebbles). Parents can even create sensory tables with edible objects so toddlers can learn by tasting.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching, Tasting

7. Rice or Pasta Bin with Scoop

Overview: Bins of rice or pasta with scoops and shovels of different sizes are a fun way for toddlers to develop the sense of touch.

Why it Works: Kids love to shovel, scoop and dump objects as they develop motor skills and sense of touch. Parents can provide scoops and buckets of different sizes to help toddlers learn that heavier objects require more effort to move. Using cooked (and cooled) pasta or rice can make this sensory activity edible and even more fun for kids.

Sensory Development: Touching, Tasting

8. Simon Says

Overview: Simon Says helps kids develop their listening skills and body awareness in a fun and competitive context.

Why it Works: At the toddler age, kids learn best by playing. Simon Says is a game that develops a child’s listening and body awareness skills. They’ll learn to listen carefully, follow instructions and engage their attention, focus and short-term memory.

Sensory Development: Listening, Body Awareness

9. Freeze Tag!

Overview: Freeze tag is a popular playground game where a person who is tagged must “freeze” in their current position, not moving until a team member comes to save them.

Why it Works: Freeze tag encourages kids to develop social skills and integrate physical activity into their daily lives. Having to freeze in place when they’re tagged encourages kids to experiment with their balance in new positions and develop body awareness that will help them succeed in more complex physical activities later in life.

Sensory Development: Balance, Body Awareness

10. Make Popcorn

Overview: Making popcorn with your toddler is a fun and safe activity where they’ll learn valuable life skills – and when it’s finished, you’ll have a tasty snack to share.

Why it Works: Making popcorn with kids incorporates multiple kinds of sensory experiences. Show kids what the kernels look like before and after going into the microwave. Kids can smell the popcorn while it cooks and listen to the popping sounds. Once the popcorn is made, they’ll enjoy touching and tasting it as well – just make sure to let it cool down first.

Sensory Development: Hearing, Touching, Seeing, Tasting

11. Nature Texture Exploration

Overview: Create a nature exploration station using a large shallow tray filled with various natural materials collected from a safe outdoor environment. Provide toddlers with a child-safe magnifying glass to examine textures up close. Encourage sorting materials into different containers based on texture, size, or color. Guide children to touch, examine, and discuss the different natural objects they encounter.

Why it Works: This activity supports multiple developmental domains by introducing scientific observation, classification skills, and sensory exploration. Toddlers develop critical thinking skills by sorting and categorizing natural materials, while simultaneously engaging their sensory systems. The hands-on approach promotes curiosity, fine motor skill development, and early scientific reasoning.

Sensory Development: Touching, Seeing

12. Musical Sound Exploration

Overview: Create a safe musical exploration station with various homemade instruments. Sealed containers filled with rice, wooden spoons, and metal bowls are examples of the “instruments” for this activity. Set up the instruments on a large mat, demonstrating different ways to create sounds. Encourage toddlers to tap, shake, and explore the instruments, experimenting with volume, rhythm, and sound production. Guide children to listen carefully and observe how different actions create different sounds.

Why it Works: This activity supports auditory processing, rhythm recognition, and motor skill development. Toddlers learn cause-and-effect relationships by discovering how their actions produce different sounds. The hands-on musical exploration promotes creativity, listening skills, and early mathematical understanding through rhythm and pattern recognition.

Sensory Development: Hearing, Touching

13. Playdough Exploration

Overview: Prepare a safe playdough station with various exploration tools. Demonstrate how to roll, squish, and shape the playdough. Provide cookie cutters, a child-safe rolling pin, and textured surfaces for additional sensory input. Encourage toddlers to explore the playdough’s properties, creating shapes and experimenting with different textures and manipulation techniques.

Why it Works: Playdough exploration supports critical fine motor skill development, hand-eye coordination, and sensory processing. Toddlers develop spatial reasoning, creativity, and early problem-solving skills by manipulating the dough. The activity provides a rich sensory experience that supports cognitive and physical development.

Sensory Development: Touching

14. Bubble Time!

Overview: Set up a controlled bubble exploration area with child-safe bubble solution and large bubble wands. Demonstrate bubble-blowing techniques, encouraging toddlers to watch, chase, and attempt to create bubbles. Use different wand sizes to create varying bubble sizes. Supervise closely and use a waterproof mat for easy cleanup.

Why it Works: Bubble play supports multiple developmental domains, including visual tracking, motor skill development, and cause-and-effect understanding. Toddlers develop hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and early scientific observation skills. The activity provides a magical, engaging sensory experience that promotes learning through play.

Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching

Sensory Activities FAQs

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Procare is proven in the business of child care, with over 30 years experience delivering child care products and services that enhance outcomes for child care centers, educators, and the families and kids they serve.

With Procare Solutions, child care providers can plan lessons and schedule sensory activities, ensuring that each child in their care develops all seven senses through stimulating play. Using the Procare app, parents can follow their child’s progress and track observations in real time as they discover the world through sensory play.

With features like our integrated child care billing software, daily observation sharing through our family engagement platform, weekly lesson planning and child development portfolios, Procare is the leading child care management solution for centers of all sizes. 

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