Children's exploration and learning are greatly influenced by sensory experiences. Childcare professionals and home care providers recognize this and provide sensory tables, offering hands-on experiences that aid in learning and discovery. These tables are versatile, allowing children to engage in creative and sensory learning activities, contributing to their overall development.
Sensory Tables are tables specifically made for children to explore and engage with their environment and develop neural pathways by supporting cognitive, social, and creative development. This is especially true with those with special needs, though everyone can benefit and have fun with a sensory table.
These tables can be filled with water, sand, dry pasta, or anything other texture or object you’d like to explore with your child. You can also purchase different-sized scoops and sponges so that children can learn cause and effect as well as size-related behaviors and properties. Some sensory tables have removable bins and drains inside the table to facilitate cleaning and disinfecting.
Sensory tables are important to a child’s development because children rely on their senses to comprehend and navigate the world around them. They cannot always articulate or investigate as adults do to figure out how something works or how to gather information, so they explore that stimulation with their hands in order to figure it out. Sensory tables provide a safe and comfortable environment for children and those with special needs to explore various stimuli to better understand the world around them.