Sensory Activity for Kids - Sensory Gloves

Sensory activities play a crucial role in a child’s development by stimulating their senses and encouraging exploration. One engaging sensory activity is the use of sensory gloves, which provide a unique and interactive way for children to explore different textures and sensations.

In this post, we will delve into the world of sensory gloves and discover how this hands-on activity can promote sensory development and provide a fun and stimulating experience for kids of all ages.

Sensory gloves are a wonderful sensory activity for kids that engage their sense of touch and promote tactile exploration. These gloves are designed to provide a variety of textures and sensations, allowing children to explore different materials and develop their sensory awareness.

Sensory gloves are typically made of fabric or silicone and have various textures, bumps, or patterns on the surface.

I learned this sensory activity from my son’s co-op preschool. It was a big ‘duh’ moment. Yes, latex medical gloves. Over the years I have created sensory bins, sensory bags, and sensory bottles but this idea, my friends, was like coming home.

This post includes how to make Sensory Gloves for Preschoolers.

Sensory Gloves for Preschoolers

So simple. All you need are latex gloves and items to fill the gloves such as kidney beans, lentils, corn starch, sugar, flour, corn kernels, and rice. Tie at the wrist and you’re on your way to a fun sensory experience for you and your children!

My advice is to keep it simple. Don’t decorate the gloves, don’t even add smell. Isolate the quality of experience so your child can reach his sensory potential.

Preparation: Gather a pair of sensory gloves or create your own by sewing or attaching different textured materials to a pair of gloves. You can use materials such as velvet, satin, faux fur, bubble wrap, sandpaper, or any other textured fabric that provides a range of tactile experiences.
Sensory Exploration: Encourage children to wear the sensory gloves and explore different textures with their hands. They can touch various objects, surfaces, or sensory materials while wearing the gloves to experience the unique sensations they provide. Examples include feeling the smoothness of a glass surface, the roughness of sandpaper, or the softness of a plush toy.
Guessing Game: Create a guessing game where children wear the sensory gloves and touch objects or materials while blindfolded. They can feel the textures and try to guess what they are touching based on the tactile feedback they receive. This activity enhances sensory discrimination and cognitive skills as children learn to identify textures through touch alone.
Texture Sorting: Provide a variety of objects or materials with different textures and ask children to sort them based on their texture. For example, they can categorize items as rough, smooth, bumpy, or soft. This activity promotes sensory categorization and helps children develop their vocabulary to describe textures.
Sensory Storytelling: Use the sensory gloves as a prop during storytelling sessions. As you narrate a story, invite children to touch different objects or sensory materials that correspond to elements of the story. For instance, if the story mentions a fuzzy animal, children can touch a piece of faux fur with their sensory gloves. This activity enhances their engagement and sensory integration while listening to the story.
Sensory Art: Incorporate sensory gloves into art activities. Children can dip their gloved hands into paint or sensory materials like rice, sand, or shaving foam, and explore the textures while creating tactile art. This allows them to combine sensory exploration with creative expression.

Benefits of Sensory Gloves

Tactile Exploration: Sensory gloves provide children with a rich sensory experience, allowing them to explore different textures, temperatures, and surfaces. This enhances their tactile awareness, sensory discrimination, and fine motor skills.
Cognitive Development: Engaging in tactile sensory activities helps children develop cognitive skills such as categorization, sorting, and problem-solving as they explore and compare different textures.
Language Development: Describing and discussing the textures they feel during sensory glove activities promotes language development. Children learn to articulate their observations, use descriptive vocabulary, and engage in conversations about their sensory experiences.
Sensory Integration: Sensory glove activities help children integrate sensory information from their hands and fingers, improving their ability to process and respond to tactile stimuli.

Introduce new language such as crunchy, smooth, grainy, granular, bumpy, rough, wrinkle, hard, soft, and tough. Use variations such as grading from roughest to least rough or create pairs and make matches using a blindfold.

Sensory glove activities provide children with an engaging and hands-on way to explore and understand the world through their sense of touch. By incorporating these activities, parents, caregivers, and educators can support children’s sensory development, cognitive skills, and language acquisition in a fun and interactive manner.

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Marnie