Since the grand opening of our new Sensory & Imaginative Play Room at the Spinney Day Nursery, the children have spent a lot of time in there either experiencing the sensory element or encouraging their imaginations to run wild at the ‘beach’, the current theme in the Imaginative Play element.

The Sensory Room was created to provide a designated space where the different age groups can experience sensory play through the different senses.

The different colour changing lights, mix of textures of the materials and calming music provide a relaxing and fascinating experience for babies, toddlers and pre-school children. There has been a lot of research on the benefits of sensory play with the results showing why it is important for child development  such as:

1. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which lead to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks.
2. Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.
3. This type of play aids in developing and enhancing memory
4. Sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child
5. This helps children learn sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry)

Though all the different room provide sensory play activities within the nursery, the benefit of having a room that provides a quiet, relaxing environment where sensory play can be experienced is great for the children.

The other element of the room is the Imaginative Play, which was created to allow the children a dedicated place to play away from their rooms and therefore had a magical feel to it. The purpose of this was to allow children a space to encourage use of their imaginations as well as an extension to the themes they were doing. For example, the current theme in there is the beach, so there is sand on the floor, complete with bucket and spade, seagulls dangling from the ceiling as if in mid flights, and of course an Ice cream stall where they can pretend to be the ice cream seller or indeed the customer.

There is a ‘seaside sounds’ cd playing to really give the feeling that you are at the beach. Here the children can experience role-play but also it helps bring a project or storybook to life! The previous theme was the Polar Regions where the whole room was turned into Antarctica & the Arctic, and the children had stories read to them about the little Polar bear and penguin, which they could then imagine
they were part of the story.

The theme will change over the year to suit what the children are learning or talking about through observations so one week it may be Space, the next week the Jungle! The aim is to provide a continuous magical experience for all age groups, supporting the benefits of Imaginative Play.

Here of the benefits derived from Imaginative Play which can be found on the following website

• Pretending: Just the act of pretending is a learning curve for a child. It grants them with an outlet to role play what they have seen in their world. This helps them learn about how the world works and practice how adults interact.
• Social Play: Pretend play encourages negotiation, cooperation, and role-playing different situations. Pretend story lines and characters, turn taking, sharing are all great skills to learn.
• Social interaction: Not only does it help with social skills but it also encourages a child to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and be empathetic and considerate of others. This gives them a
  chance to practice behaviour, manners and language that is needed when they interact in real world situations, as well as what behaviour is acceptable in public.
• Language development: Dramatic Pretend play encourages expressive language that would not otherwise be used by the child. Often through pretend play withdrawn children can first start to express themselves by acting a certain role. Further, this gives the parent an opportunity to extend on language skills by paraphrasing what the child has said using more descriptive language and exchanging conversations using expressive language examples.
• Imagination: Pretend Dramatic Play is a great for showing how imaginative children are. Imagination is an important building block for learning. It is not only important in childhood, imagination is crucial for life. Just imagine a world without it, we would not have scientists making new discoveries, artists making new artworks, Santa traditions, award-winning stories like Avatar and we would not be able to cognitively process these possibilities or examples.
• Self-esteem: By giving your child complete control in their pretend world and accepting them as a silly character like Captain Underpants you are enhancing their self-esteem. While they use their own initiative to develop story lines, their creative imagination to expand stories and their own
  personality to choose a character they enjoy, you are enhancing their self-esteem by allowing them complete power in the world & enjoying it with them.