So how many times have you tried to introduce play dough (or something else ooey and gooey) to your child and he refuses to touch it? Trust me, you are not the only one. Ok, so some may say, “Who cares if my kid plays with play dough or not, no big deal.” Well, that’s pretty much true, but my concern with kids not engaging with toys or sensory manipulatives is that it may keep them from being social with their peers.
The same is true for sensory/bean/rice/sand/water tables or bins. The whole point in providing the opportunity for them to engage in these tasks is so that when they are presented with these activities at school or in any other social situation, they will more likely participate with their peers than leave the environment.
When providing the opportunity for your child to engage in these tasks, just consider them prerequisites to social play, communication, and friendship. We would have to agree that these are pretty important goals to focus on!
The added bonuses to playing and experimenting with a variety of mediums, is that your child is being creative and is engaging in a task that you can literally customize to any child’s interest. If your child loves dinosaurs, make dinosaur tracks in the play dough with their plastic figures. If your child likes shapes, gather up a variety of shapes and place them in the bean bin. Have your child dig through the beans to gain the shape, label it and then place in a cup or match to a card so he can see how many are left to find.
It’s not working!
Remember that you will most likely not meet your ultimate goal of playing happily the first time around. Your goal the first day may be touching the play dough with one finger (or toe!) or picking the shapes from the top of the beans so that your child barely has to touch the beans.
Here’s what you can try when introducing play dough to children who don’t want to touch it: Have some small pieces of play dough in front of him and tell him that it is time to clean up. I have had kids that are so anxious to put it away that they are happy to pick it up to place it back into the container without even thinking about it. Don’t worry if it’s not a great experience the first time. Try again and again . . . and again!
Taking baby steps is okay because you will make progress. Forcing them to do it will just frustrate and possibly scare your child. I never force a child to engage in any of these activities. I do, however, strongly encourage them by showing them how to play with these materials.
Here is a great idea for play dough engagement.