Playdough is a classic childhood favourite that’s been around for many years and provides hours of fun. Children love playdough because it’s the perfect play activity – it’s squishy, colourful and there’s no wrong or right way to play.
Next time your children are having a great time (and making mess!) remind yourself about these numerous benefits of playdough.
Developing finger muscles and having proper finger control is an important first step to learning how to write at school.
As children roll, squish, mould, break, flatten, and shape playdough, they are developing the muscles needed for fine motor skills.
Those same muscles are the ones they’ll use for future skills like holding a pencil and using scissors.
Playing with playdough is good for helping calm down kids. It can release excess energy, help to ease tension and improve focus. Next time you have a child who is feeling stressed get out the play dough.
Playdough can be pizza, cake, or a mountain for dinosaurs to stomp on – the creations are endless! Playdough encourages your child to create from scratch; it stretches their imagination and makes them think innovatively. Playing with playdough really is a great form of imaginative play!
Many times we bring out different materials and tools for children to use with playdough. Cookie cutters, plastic knives, rolling pins, and scissors are all fun tools that children can use to get even more creative with their playdough creations. These aren’t just fun, they help younger children develop their hand-eye coordination.
Another of the benefits of playdough is that it encourages children to practice their social and communication skills as they share colours and tools, spend time chatting about their creations, and even working together. And because there is no right or wrong way to play, it’s excellent for building self-esteem in early childhood.
While children work on their creations they form new ideas and concepts. Through this they learn new words such as “squish, squeeze, roll, flatten” as well as words to describe what they’re creating.
Roll the dough into a long snake so they can shape them into different shapes and letters (with the help of an adult), for a fun way to help develop symbolic thinking.
Playdough isn’t just an easy way to keep children occupied with a fun activity, it helps early childhood cognitive development too!
Making playdough together from scratch is a fun way to explore measuring, mixing and experimenting. Get them involved and watch what happens when the gooey mixture transforms into playdough!
With so many benefits to playing with playdough for early childhood development, you can feel good knowing the next time your child is making a mess with their playdough creations that they’re learning important skills.
Playgroup WA has been supporting, servicing and establishing playgroups throughout Western Australia since 1972.
