Which skills does a Sensory Board develop in a child?
Let’s start off by recapping what a sensory or busy board actually is: our sensory boards are wooden activity boards with different real-life gadgets, household objects, games and activities mounted to them, such as latches, locks, doors, wheels, bells, cogs, numbers and shapes. What most of these items have in common is that they can all be interacted with in some way and/or have some form of mechanical action to them. So not only are sensory boards a fun toy to play with because they’re packed with gadgets that children and toddlers are naturally drawn to, but they’re also an educational tool that allows children to learn, develop and practice different skills.
So which skills does a sensory board actually develop in a child?
Fine-motor and tactile skills
Most obviously, sensory boards develop a child’s fine-motor skills. These skills refer to the group of skills involved in the ability to manipulate smaller objects with the hands and fingers, including grasping, pinching, holding, twisting and turning, which is exactly what your child will be doing with the different gadgets on a sensory board. More advanced forms of fine motor skills involve inserting a small object into a small opening, such as lacing a shoe or closing a latch or chain-lock.
All of these movements and actions will naturally also develop the child’s tactile skills, so its sense of touch, feeling physically sensitivity and pressure.
Brain development
Naturally, the brains of young children aren’t fully developed yet. Many of their actions and behaviours are driven by curiosity, simply because they’re doing and encountering most things for the first time. They will be familiar with some objects on the activity board, but not all. This means that their brain will begin to learn what a zip or latch looks like, feels like, and how to open and close it, for example.
Language development and vocabulary
The variety of objects and activities on a sensory board allows parents to teach their children a whole host of new words – not just the names of the items themselves (for example “bell”, “zip”, “lock”), but also the actions, directions and even opposites associated with them – for example: open, shut, up, down, in, out, loud, quiet, hard, soft, round, pointy, twist, turn, pull, push, and so on.
Sources:
https://montessorifortoday.com/quiet-books-and-busy-boards-are-they-montessori/