This post was last updated on 8/4/2026. It was originally published on 8/3/2020 and aimed at both infants and toddlers. There is now a separate post for Toddler Sensory Activities.
From the time they’re born, babies learn about their environments and the world around them through sensory play long before they have the words to describe what they’re seeing, hearing or feeling.
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 baby 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, infants 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 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:
- Seeing – Recognizing colors, shapes, letters, words, numbers, body language and other cues in the environment.
- Smelling – Recognizing and identifying different foods, plants or materials in the environment.
- Hearing/Listening – Recognizing sounds in the environment, understanding what they mean and learning how to respond.
- 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.
- Tasting – Recognizing different tastes and the foods they belong to, identifying good and bad tastes.
- Balancing – Perceiving body movements in relation to gravity and weight, learning movements to maintain balance and prevent falling.
- 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 for infants that parents and child care providers can use to encourage learning through sensory exploration and play.
Sensory Activities for Infants: 1–6 Months
At this age, babies are mostly passive explorers. They take in the world with their eyes and ears long before they can reach, grab or crawl toward it. These activities are designed for a baby who can’t yet sit up unassisted.
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: Long before babies understand language, they read faces. Recognizing a smile helps them feel safe and builds early visual tracking skills.
Sensory development: Seeing
3. High Contract Cards
Overview: Hold up simple black-and-white or high-contrast pattern cards about a foot from your baby’s face.
Why it works: Newborn vision is blurry and most sensitive to sharp contrast, not color. High-contrast images are some of the earliest things infants can focus on and track.
Sensory development: Seeing
4. Singing Songs
Overview: Singing songs together with your child during everyday moments (diaper changes, feeding, etc.) 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
5. Texture Board
Overview: Affix a variety of safe materials like felt, foil, cotton, and bubble wrap onto a sturdy board and let your baby touch each section.
Why it works: Every new texture is a discovery for a baby who’s never felt it before. Guide their hand across the board and narrate what they’re feeling (“soft,” “bumpy”).
Sensory development: Touching
6. 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
7. Tummy Time Mirror
Overview: Play mirror games with your infant. Position an unbreakable 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 drawn to faces, including their own reflection, which helps motivate the head and neck strengthening work tummy time requires.
Sensory development: Seeing, Body Awareness
8. Textured Mittens or Socks
Overview: Put mittens made of different fabrics (fleece, mesh, terry cloth) on your baby’s hands and let them notice the difference.
Why it works: Before babies can reach for objects, wearing textures on their hands is an easy way to introduce touch and helps with hand discovery.
Sensory development: Touching, Body Awareness
9. Musical Toys and Rattles
Overview: Shake a rattle or play a simple musical toy near your baby and let them listen.
Why it works: Simple sounds help infants develop auditory attention. As they get closer to 6 months, encourage them to reach for and hold the toy themselves.
Sensory development: Touching, Listening
10. Scent Introduction
Overview: Let your baby smell mild, safe scents during daily routines: a slice of banana, a cotton ball with a drop of vanilla, or fresh herbs held at a distance.
Why it works: Smell is one of the earliest senses to develop, and gentle scent exposure helps infants start building associations between smells and objects.
Sensory development: Smelling
Sensory Activities for Infants: 6–12 Months
By 6 months, most babies can sit with support, reach for objects, and bring things to their mouth on purpose. This opens the door to messier, more hands-on sensory play.
11. Board Book Textures
Overview: Read touch-and-feel board books together, pausing to let your baby feel each textured page.
Why it works: Combining language exposure with tactile input builds early vocabulary alongside sensory development. It’s also an easy activity to fit into a bedtime routine.
Sensory development: Touching, Listening, Seeing
12. 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: Babies at this age can grasp and squeeze on purpose. Splashing, holding and squeezing sponges builds fine motor skills and body awareness while introducing the feeling of wet vs. dry.
Sensory development: Touching, Body Awareness
13. 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: Ice is slippery and cold — two new sensations for a baby who’s mostly experienced room-temperature objects. Supervise closely and remove cubes small enough to pose a choking risk
Sensory Development: Seeing, Touching
14. Frozen Fruit Mesh Feeder
Overview: Place a piece of frozen banana, mango or berries inside a mesh or silicone feeder and let your baby suck and gnaw on it.
Why it works: A mesh feeder lets babies safely explore new tastes and the sensation of cold without any choking risk, since the food can’t break off into pieces. It’s also a favorite for soothing sore gums during teething.
Sensory development: Tasting, Touching
15. 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, Seeing, Body Awareness
16. 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 Ddevelopment: Seeing, Touching
17. Soft Fabric Basket
Overview: : Fill a basket with a variety of soft fabric scraps like silk, corduroy, terry cloth, faux fur for your baby to pull out and handle.
Why it works: Around 8–10 months, babies enjoy the repetitive motion of pulling items out of a container. It builds fine motor skills alongside tactile exploration.
Sensory development: Touching, Seeing
18. 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. Older infants 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
19. Standing/Bouncing Play
Overview: With support, let your baby bounce or bear weight on their legs — on your lap, in a doorway bouncer, or holding onto a low table.
Why it works: As babies approach 9–12 months, they’re building the balance and body awareness needed for standing and eventually walking.
Sensory development: Balancing, Body Awareness
20. Simple Stacking and Nesting Toys
Overview: Offer stacking rings or nesting cups and let your baby handle, bang, and attempt to stack them.
Why it works: Near their first birthday, babies are refining their grasp and starting to understand size and spatial relationships. Stacking toys build fine motor control and early problem-solving.
Sensory development: Touching, Seeing, Body Awareness
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Sensory Activities FAQs
As a general rule, avoid small parts or loose materials for any baby who still mouths objects, and always supervise water or edible sensory play directly. If an activity involves anything smaller than a golf ball, or an ingredient your baby hasn’t tried before, check with your pediatrician first.
Start with a smaller amount of the material and a shorter session, and watch for signs of overstimulation like turning away, crying or arching the back. An occupational therapist can offer guidance tailored to your baby’s specific needs.
Most infants stay engaged for 5–15 minutes. Let your baby’s natural attention span decide when the activity is over.
Looking for ideas for an older kid? See 18 Sensory Activities for Toddlers (1–3 Years).
