Scented sensory play
Sensory and messy play go perfectly with the sense of smell! We’ve included some ideas to get you started and lots of links to blogs sharing even more scented fun for you and your vision impaired child to explore.
Sensory and messy play go perfectly with the sense of smell! We’ve included some ideas to get you started and lots of links to blogs sharing even more scented fun for you and your vision impaired child to explore.
Scented dough
Take one of our homemade play dough recipes from our Recipe Kitchen section and add a fragrance of your choice! This can easily be done using edible plant extracts – such as grape extract or olive oil, or spices such as cinnamon. Not only will the play dough be safe to put into the mouth, it will add another dimension to the activity that your child can smell.
Once you have your dough, your child can simply enjoy free messy play with it – pinching, squeezing and stretching will help with their fine motor skills. You can incorporate cookie cutters, small rolling pins or materials to press textures into the dough. Why not play shop/cafes and use plates and cupcake cases for the dough. You can combine your dough into a sensory tray. For example, apple or cinnamon scented dough could be used in an autumn filled tray with crunchy leaves, pine cones or Halloween themed toys!
Fruit and veg
You can incorporate fruit and vegetables into sensory messy play. You could use a carrot as a rolling pin with the edible play dough or a celery stick as a paint brush with edible paint. All of these items are naturally scented and will help your child become familiar with the scents and textures. Why not use slices of carrot or cucumber as counters in a game or as money when playing shop for an added smelly fun!
Scented garden
Even a small outdoor space can be designed to incorporate the senses for your visually impaired child.
Click here to find out how to make how to make your own sensory garden here >
You can gather scented items from your garden such as petals and herbs with your child and then transform them into a messy play game mixing them into water to create potions or perfumes. They can mix with their hands or a wooden spoon.
Paint with yogurt
It doesn’t come much messier than this! You just need small pots of different flavoured yogurts and a large roll of paper. Let your child sniff the different smells and have fun smearing, painting and mixing the flavours.
Messy jelly play
Jelly really is the perfect sensory item! It comes in different colours, smells and flavours and is just really fun to touch, wobble and squish! You can hide items within the different scents that relate to the smell. So for example, you could set a whole strawberry inside the strawberry flavour and a lime in the lime one. Always be mindful of the risk of choking and play all edible/scented games under supervision.
Make a scented tactile picture
You can make a tactile outline yourself and allow your child to fill it with various smelling textures such as cereals or spices. To make a tactile outline, take a discarded carboard box and cut out a sheet for the base. You can then use thin strips stuck upright to form walls in different patters – stick them with pvs glue or blue tack. For a shallower frame, you could use string to form your outlines.
Further inspiration
These blogs and websites have some great ideas for you to explore:
Apple volcanoes from frogsandsnailsandpuppydogtail.com
Make your own scented rattle from wonderbaby.org
Coconut and rice crispies messy play from littlehandslearning.co.uk
Herbal tea party from littlehandslearning.co.uk
Scented water play from littlehandslearning.co.uk
Taste safe muddy dinosaur play from myboredtoddler.com
