16 Benefits of Play-Doh for Children and Toddlers
Play-Doh has many benefits to play for children and toddlers. In this blog post, you will read about all of these benefits, plus you will learn some tips on how to teach your child or toddler how to play with playdough. When I use “Play-Doh,” I am referring specifically to the trademarked name Hasbro Play-Doh. When I use “playdough,” I am referring to the generic term.
*Disclaimer #1: Play-Doh recommends waiting to introduce your child to playdough until age 3. Regardless of when you feel your child is ready, ALWAYS, ALWAYS closely supervise your child! I introduced both of my daughters to playdough at 13 months of age, but kept a close eye on them the entire time. I made sure their fingernails were cut short before playing and washed their hands after. In addition to supervision, cutting fingernails and washing hands, I also recommend reading the labels before purchasing. The most popular brand, Hasbro Play-Doh, is non-toxic. However, lots of other brands are also non-toxic.
*Disclaimer #2: I am an occupational therapist and my sister is a speech language pathologist. However, this blog post is not in replacement of therapy. If you have specific developmental or therapy related questions about your child, I encourage you to ask your doctor and/or therapist(s) your child is seeing.
What are the Benefits of Play-Doh in Children and Toddlers?:
Occupational Therapy Benefits
1.Improve Fine motor/Coordination
2. Finger Strengthening (poking, squishing, pinching, squeezing)
3. Bilateral hand use (rolling, patting into pancake). Using two hands at once can happen as early as 3-6 months but not with great control. More advanced bilateral hand use, such as stabilizing with one hand and manipulating with the other, occurs around 16-18 months.
4. Encourages specific grasps (pincer, tripod or 3-jaw chuck, palmar grasp, lateral pinch)
5. Index finger isolation (poke holes with Play-Doh on table)
6. Imaginative play (build a rainbow, snowman, butterfly, caterpillar, baseball, etc.)
7. Attention and concentration
- The child sits and engages in task. I’ve found that my two-year-old attends better and longer in a task when sitting at a table or in her highchair.
- A helpful hint that may increase your child’s attention and concentration is to look at his/her feet. The child’s feet should sit on the floor instead of dangling. If the child cannot reach the floor in the chair he/she is sitting in, place something under the feet such as a phone book, a small stool, etc. It is difficult to focus if one’s feet are dangling.
8. Sensory Play
- Playing with playdough itself is good for sensory play, but add objects such as dry noodles, beads, pennies, or any other AGE-APPROPRIATE object for additional sensory benefits. It is very important that adult supervision is provided to ensure the child is safe at all times.
Activities to Incorporate Occupational Therapy Benefits with Toddlers:
- Make a donut
- Pinch hills
- Make shapes
- Cut with a plastic knife or kid-friendly scissors
- Sensory play
- Index finger isolation
- Imaginative play
8. Use letter mats
A few last tips:
1. If your child is having difficulty managing utensils and/or shows lack of coordination, try having child prop his/her elbows on tabletop for added trunk support. Giving the child proximal (trunk) control will improve distal (arms/hands) control.
2. Over time, work toward increasing trunk stability such as having an older child sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair.
3. If child cannot yet use more coordinated utensils such as a knife or scissors, start with hand-over-hand assistance. This is where the adult places their hands over child’s hands and they do the activity together. Have the child keep practicing both together and independently. Over time, I believe you will start to see a positive difference. Remember to be patient, these skills take time to master. If you are attempting hand-over-hand with a toddler, you may have to get creative on how you approach this as sometimes toddlers will only do things if it is his/her idea. 😊
Speech & Language Benefits
9. Provides opportunities for parents to talk about what they and the child are creating
10. Child requests more playdough or playdough items they need (ie: cookie cutter, knife, roller)
11. Make speech sounds as child is patting, squishing, etc. A speech sound is any early developing sound you can make while squishing, patting, rolling, etc. Some examples of early developing speech sounds are “m,” “p,” “b,” “h,” “w,” “t,” “d.” Of course if you make animals or cars, practice making these sounds as well.
12. Increases vocabulary words as you make certain objects (cat, ball, snake, circle)
13. Improves knowledge of verbs (roll, squish, pat, etc.) as you create your objects
14. Encourages use of please and thank you as child requests certain items
15. Promotes turn taking (ie: if child has to wait on rolling pin or cookie cutter while someone else is using it)
16. Increases sentence length
- (ie: playdough> more playdough> more pink playdough)
- (ie: want playdough> I want more playdough> I want more pink playdough please, etc.)
Activities to Incorporate Speech & Language Benefits with Toddlers
1. Older child activity: Have the adult make an object and the child will guess what the adult is making or vice verse. The person making the object can give clues.
- Example 1: It is an animal. It is long. It eats mice. (answer= snake)
- Example 2: You can eat it for breakfast. You put syrup on it. (answer= pancake)
2. Have your child help you make your own dough. (See below for great homemade recipe.) As you go through each step, explain what you are doing. If your child is older and can read, have him/her read and try to follow the instructions with little help. Use verbs such as pour, mix, and stir and vocabulary words such as bowl, spoon, flour, plus whatever ingredients you add.
3. Make different foods out of playdough and pretend you are ordering the food at a restaurant.
- Example: Order a waffle from IHOP.
Other types of Play-Doh like substances
I mainly talk about the specific brand Play-Doh, but all of the benefits listed in this post are also applicable to any other brand as well. Here are a couple of options:
*This post may contain affiliate links to products. Using these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more information, click here.
- For children with gluten or soy allergies: Aroma Dough
- For children with peanuts, tree nuts, soy, dairy, casein, or egg: Bio Dough
- There are also several recipes you can easily find online. This homemade playdough recipe is my personal favorite.
Accessories
There are many toys you can buy to make playing with Play-Doh even more fun. Below are a few.
- Here are some great cookie cutters on Amazon
I’ve also randomly found cookie cutters at the Dollar Tree. I’ve come upon this twice now and each time there were 20 cookie cutters per bag. In my opinion, this is an AWESOME deal for only $1.25!!
Conclusion
Hopefully after reading this post you can see that Play-Doh, or playdough, has many benefits for children and toddlers. Please leave what did or didn’t work in the comment section below. I’d also love to hear any other ideas you may have. Now go and make some great memories!
Resources used when writing this article: myself, my occupational therapy friend, my speech language pathology sister, my speech language pathology friend, Case-Smith O’Brien Occupational Therapy for Children, HELP Chart Revised, and The American Academy of Pediatrics: The Complete and Authoritative Guide Caring for Your Baby and Young Child Birth to Age 5.
I NEVER would have known that having your feet dangle makes focusing harder. But, that makes so much sense and I can see that, even in myself! I am so glad to know this tip! THANK YOU!!