Sensory play focuses on activities that engage a child’s senses. But, most importantly, this was also meant to be a fun-filled day for our kids.

Taarana School recently commemorated Children’s Day by getting its students to engage in numerous inclusive, sensory activities in which they may otherwise face challenges. The games aimed to develop further and improve their creative thinking, imagination, teamwork, and fine motor skills.

In appreciation of and a reflection of this year’s Children’s Day theme – ‘Inclusion, for every child’ – the indoor and outdoor activities also encouraged the children to build on mutual understanding and respect for their peers, lead more active and healthy lifestyles, and improve their lives.

“All children benefit from play, but a special needs child may find it challenging to participate in traditional games,” Taarana’s Principal, Dr Sunitha Sivakumaran, said.

“Sensory play focuses on activities that engage a child’s senses, helping them develop language and motor skills, cognitive growth, fosters social interactions, and encourages experimentation. However, most importantly, this was also meant to be a fun-filled day for our kids,” she added.

Building a world where every child is seen, counted, and included is at the heart of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is commemorated on World Children’s Day each 20th November.

The day started with a short physical warmup before the children were divided into groups to move from one activity to the next.

The outdoor play comprised the water transfer games ‘Pass the Water’ and ‘Pass the Sponge.’ These help special needs children practice dexterity and gross motor skills and grasp the concept of absorption as they work with the sponge.

While indoors, the students played ‘Animal Hunt’, which involved rummaging through sand pits for animal figurines.

Besides being highly therapeutic and relaxing, sand play benefits children with fine and gross motor development, eye-hand coordination, problem-solving, creativity, and social skills.

The day’s final activity for the tired but happy kids involved a more relaxing undertaking – creating fruit and vegetable prints on canvases.

Using vegetables and fruits as a “stamp” can help children improve and grow their hand-eye coordination by holding the item, dipping it in the paint, and then dabbing it on the canvas.

“We firmly believe that all our students are capable and can achieve any goal when equipped with the necessary skills and traits. Today’s celebration emphasised that in a merry and frolicsome way,” Dr Sunitha said.