A sensory gym helps your child reach their therapy goals and makes learning fun!
If your child has a sensory processing disorder, it can be difficult to improve their sensory integration without completely overwhelming them. Light, touch, food, and noise can become overwhelming and impede their developmental progress. A sensory gym, or safe play area designed to help with sensory development, can help your child to play and grow. Here are three of the great benefits of a sensory gym.
Amplifying Therapy
Sensory gyms will not replace the other types of therapy your child is receiving, but it will help to amplify its effects. Sensory gyms are a great way to foster independence, reduce social stress, and help acclimate your child to new stimuli safely. A therapist can work with your child to help them properly respond to a variety of fun stimuli in the sensory gym including swings, ball pits, bubble fans, and tunnels. Over time, your child will adjust to these sensations and have increased confidence in and out of the sensory gym. Sensory gyms have been proven to help with fine motor skills, body and spatial awareness, cause-and-effect reasoning, and an increase in social skills.
Working from Home
If you create a sensory gym in your home, you will have a quick and easy way to encourage sensory development without needing to leave the house. Don’t worry about needing to invest in expensive equipment and instead use items from around the house like a fan, beanbags, and bins filled with different textures like dry pasta, sand, or gravel. Creating a sensory gym at home is also a great way to get your child involved in the process (and help them enjoy it even more!).
Having Fun
More than anything else, a sensory gym will help your child have fun learning. Unlike school classrooms or play centers that can be overwhelming, the sensory gym will allow your child to grow and learn in a fun environment. You will see developmental progress while they just see a room full of fun things to play and explore.
The Connections Therapy Center
The Connections Therapy Center serves families of children and adolescents with disabilities and special needs. We are a team of experts in the fields of pediatric speech, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and behavioral sciences. As a team, we offer intensive hands-on therapy for children and adolescents, as well as informative and useful resources for families. If you are interested in learning more about what we can do to help your family, visit us online or give us a call at (202) 561-1110 (Washington, D.C. office) or (301) 577-4333 (Lanham office). Want to get more information on how to help your child thrive? Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest.