Sensory Bin Ideas, Tips, and Tricks

Have you ever tried to make a sensory bin? Maybe you’ve never heard of one or maybe you’ve tried to create one and it was too messy? Well you’ve come to the right place. Read on for the benefits of sensory bins and different tips/tricks to using sensory bins on the go or in the home.

Benefits of Sensory Bins

Desensitization

Sensory bins promote tactile processing and discrimination. By submerging the hand into a pool of sensation, parts of the skin on the hand that rarely receive input are being stimulated and those neural pathways strengthened. This promotes improved awareness and can help prepare sensory sensitive individuals for a tactile experience that they may feel sensitive to like nail clipping or handwashing. The sensation of the textures in the bin are so unique, they overpower the receptors so that whatever comes next may feel less intense.

Fine Motor Development

Sensory bins also help prepare the hand muscles for fine motor tasks and activities. Placing the hand into a new, unpredictable sensory bin alerts the nervous system and prepares the hands for the use of the small muscles.

Picking up the small items in the bin helps promote a pincer grasp (bringing the thumb and index finger together to hold an item). Picking up and sorting through the small items in the bin allows opportunities to practice in hand manipulations (the ability to move items from your fingers to your palm and vice versa). Feel free to demonstrate for your child or create a game seeing who can collect the most items using one hand while only picking up one thing at a time.

Storage

Storing sensory bins is the first order of business. I love using a large snack/toy container with a twist top lid. Then when it’s time to play with the contents of the bin, I pour it into a large bowl, tray, or container for ease of access and play. When it’s time to clean up, I pour everything back into the twist top container. This is great for traveling with a bin. Sometimes, I even leave the items in the snack bin and reach in to engage with the items, or fish cards out. Sometimes items spill when being transferred between containers, but that’s why we choose the contents of a sensory bin carefully, which leads to the next tip.

Use Large Ingredients

Using large pieces to create a sensory bin is important for many reasons. The first being the reduced risk of choking.

Choose the size of the items depending on the age of the child, for smaller children chose bigger items, for older kids, you can gradually reduce the size of the items. Consider things like dry elbow, bow tie, or ziti shaped pasta, large dry pinto beans or kidney beans. Consider adding in softer items like pom-poms or cotton balls.

Be careful not to go too small of items like rice, lentil beans, or sand. These are hard to pick up, difficult to vacuum and tricky to sweep. Larger items are easy to see when they fall out and can be swept up easily. Better yet, encourage your kiddo to pick up the item to promote pincer grasp development and visual scanning skills to locate the items on the floor/surface.

Layer in activities

Does the novelty and excitement of a new sensory bin wear off after a few days, hours, or even minutes? Try adding in new activities. Write the letters of their name on small pieces of paper and ask them to search for them. Create rules together like you have to locate them in order or practice writing each letter after you find it. Hide puzzle pieces to a familiar puzzle inside. Work on stereognosis, the ability to perceive the form of solid objects by touch, by hiding familiar objects inside and asking each other to grasp and guess what the object is without looking at it. Try practicing scooping with a spoon our pouring between containers with a cup and a bowl. Grab some kitchen tongs and try picking up different items from the bin.

Variety is Key

Variety within the sensory bin is important, but so is variety between bins. Add in beads and string for a color element and a lacing activity if they’re interested. Try adding in random items from the house such as cotton balls, marbles or coins (depending on the age of the child). Add in toy cars or any miniature figurine toys they may have. A toy they have not played with in months could find a new purpose within the sensory bin.

Consider experimenting with different wet or dry textures like cooked pasta or raw pasta. These water beads are a great sensory activity and these tapioca pearls can be substituted for younger sensory bin enthusiasts who may try mouth or eat the non-edible water beads.

Try a completely natural bin with grass, flowers, soil, and rocks. Go on a scavenger hunt with your child to look for other nature items and add it in.

If you have a sensory sensitive kiddo, try starting with bins that are dry and slowly working up to wet, sticky, or messy bins (think shaving cream, foaming soap, cooked pasta, or even pudding). Messy play is an important part of development and promoting it in small, comfortable doses can help improve the child’s sensory processing skills and tolerance of sensory experiences throughout life.