In early childhood development, Sensory Input is one of “The BIG 3” because it is the essential ingredient that makes learning “sticky.”
This concept is vital for both parents navigating playtime at home and Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) designing impactful environments. We must move beyond simple “sensory bins” and embrace the vast, free, and dynamic sensory-rich playground that nature offers every single day.
Children’s brains are wired to learn through direct experience. Their senses are transporting raw information to the brain for processing.
When a child encounters a concept like texture, weight, or temperature through multiple senses simultaneously. The more senses involved, the stronger the memory and the deeper the understanding.
When a child is given a pile of leaves and a stick, they are simultaneously receiving:
- Tactile Learning: Feeling the texture (touch).
- Auditory Processing: Listening to the sound of movement (hearing).
- Working Memory: Remembering past attempts at stacking (cognition).
This multi-faceted engagement is what makes the learning “sticky”—it stays with the child because it was experienced, not just told. By providing these open-ended materials, you can transform the play space into an active laboratory.
To help a child attend and focus, we must first support their sensory system. Fortunately, the outdoors offers a wealth of natural sensory input—from smells and sounds to textures and movement—to fuel this critical early development.
The most readily available and richest source of sensory input is nature itself. Unlike fixed plastic toys, natural materials— we often call them nature’s loose parts—offer infinite sensory variety:
Leaves: Smell the decay, hear the crunch, feel the dry crispness, see the colour change.
Mud: Feel the ooze, smell the earthiness, see the viscosity, hear the squelch.
Stones/Rocks: Feel the weight, the coolness, the smoothness or roughness; hear the clink when stacked.
The outdoors naturally provides sensory input to support a child’s development. It allows children to process sensory information without it being overstimulating or overwhelming, unlike indoors. Loud noises, smells, lighting, and tactile information are processed better in an outdoor environment. Nature delivers endless opportunities for the ordinary five senses to process, providing foundational skills for children’s growth.
While nature delivers endless input for the ordinary five senses, outdoor play is vital because it activates two of the most foundational internal senses we covered in our Big Body Play post:
- Proprioception: The sense of body awareness (deep pressure input from pushing/pulling).
- Vestibular Sense: The sense of balance and movement (input from spinning, swinging, and climbing). The vestibular sense is especially critical, as it acts as the primary organizer—the “air traffic controller”—for all other sensory input. This is why movement must be paired with sensory exploration.
The outdoors also easily provides proprioceptive and vestibular sensory input that children are craving. Proprioceptive input is gained through heavy work opportunities found outdoors, such as digging, carrying planks of wood, and transporting heavy buckets of water, sand, and stones. Proprioceptive input is the connection and pressure between your joints and muscles. It supports a child’s body awareness and the amount of pressure needed to complete heavy work tasks. This input will provide the foundational skills needed to determine how much pressure is required when completing many fine motor tasks, such as using a writing utensil, scissors, and other fundamental tools.
Supporting a vestibular system is easily maintained and developed outdoors. Movement and balance experiences are consistently found in nature due to the varied and uneven surfaces.
Creating a rich sensory environment doesn’t require expensive gadgets; it requires intention and the courage to embrace mess.
For Parents: Sensory Exploration at Home
- The Kitchen is a Lab: Use cooking for sensory play. Let children mix bread dough (heavy work/tactile), measure spices (olfactory), and feel the texture of dry beans and wet pasta.
- Outdoor Collection Baskets: Designate a special basket for collecting nature’s “loose parts” during walks. Encourage them to sort, stack, and classify the items based on their sensory attributes (smooth, light, rough, round).
- Embrace the Mess: Designate a specific “messy zone” in the yard (a sand pit, a mud kitchen, or a spot for digging) and allow for deep, engaging, and often messy play. Remember: clothes can be washed, but developmental opportunities cannot be retrieved.
For ECEs: Designing the Sensory Program
- Variety of Terrain: Ensure the outdoor space includes varied surfaces (sand, woodchips, grass, gravel) to stimulate the feet and balance senses. Spend time in the snow, in the rain, and on wet grass.
- The Water Table Upgrade: Use the water table for more than just pouring. Add natural elements like pine needles, flower petals, clay, or ice to introduce new textures, temperatures, and smells.
- Tool Engagement: Introduce fundamental tools (rubber mallets, vegetable peelers to whittle, manual drills) into your sensory stations. The resistance and feedback of these tools provide intense proprioceptive and tactile input.
Sensory-rich experiences are the primary focus of a child’s cognitive growth. When we intentionally provide the sights, sounds, textures, and movements found in abundance in nature, we are not just occupying their time; we are building the essential pathways for strong memory, focused attention, and emotional self-regulation.
As parents and ECEs, let’s advocate for environments that are messy, dynamic, and full of opportunities for exploration. By prioritizing Sensory Input—one of The BIG 3—we ensure that every moment of play is a moment of deep, “sticky” learning that prepares the child not just for the classroom, but for a lifetime of confident engagement with the world.
Want to learn how to bring the magic of nature play to life? Jill Bienenstock, our Director of Education, leads a fantastic, free monthly webinar designed just for you. Tune in every first Tuesday for fresh ideas and practical skills. Whether you’re interested in the basics of child woodworking or tackling imaginative projects like building a Christmas tree fort, there’s something new to discover every month.
