Water play, both indoor or outdoor, offer much fun for toddlers, And it helps them grow and develop in many ways. Listed below are the 5 benefits of water play for toddlers that will give you more detailed information.
- Physical and Motor skills
As we know moving in the water requires more strength to move than in the air, as the water adds resistance. So playing in the water makes a great way for toddlers to develop muscle strength. When they pour water from the bucket or playing with different water toys, squirting, stirring and squeezing, that helps them develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
- Sensory Exploration
The toddler years are an important period of brain development. Toddlers use their senses to explore the world around them. Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, so providing opportunities for them to actively use their senses are beneficial for brain development. And water play introduces a great way of sensory exploration for toddlers: textures, temperatures, sounds, move. Simple activities like pouring water, splashing get them engaging in seeing, hearing, and feeling something new.
- STEM Learning
By water play, toddlers can experience and discover simple physics concepts like motion, flowing, float. Manipulating water toys like slides, spinners, and funnels encourage them to try out new ideas and think about why and how things happen. For example, what will happen when pouring less or more water to the spinner. They can also learn about a variety of life forms relative to water, like fish, frogs, and ducks.
- Social and Emotional Development
Water play often involves 2 to 3 kids play together, which offers them the opportunity to expand their social skills by interacting with each other. They learn to take turns, play cooperatively, share water toys, space when engaging in water play. The repeated movements like pouring, scooping or watching the slow flow help release toddlers’ emotions. When they try something new and know better the world around them, succeed in doing things like overcoming the fear to slide on the water playground that helps build their confidence.
- Language Growth
The ways of water play are open-ended, various play items and play scenarios can be involved with, which allow toddlers to learn lots of new words like: bubbly, boat, funnel, leak, full ..ect as they play. They will be excited to will use new vocabulary to communicate their discoveries to everyone around them, which helps develop their language skills.
Do you provide regular water play for your toddler within the home throughout the whole year? If not, Maybe now is the time to incorporate water play into your toddler’s play schedule.
P.S. Here are some bathtub toys that can also add to the water play toys list