Ah! Play dough!

Playdough is the work of the child. Children enjoy every aspect of the exploration of play dough. It is a never-ending experience to children. When given play dough, children are instinctively motivated to explore it’s soft and responsive sensory qualities. They squeeze it, poke it, squash it, pick it up and pat it down. The dough responds to each of their actions and the child is learning that their actions have consequences. Working play dough with their hands develops the child’s large and small muscles and aids eye-hand coordination. It helps to improve fine motor skills which is beneficial to daily activities. Using play dough is a calming activity. Children work their stress out through their hands, so play dough is not only loads of fun, but can be another useful way to help your children to release stress.

A teacher will encourage children to share their thoughts and feelings when playing with playdough. They will ask questions such as: What have you made with the playdough? Why did you choose to make the snail, worm, piece of cake, out of playdough?

While asking questions, the teacher is not only helping the child to draw on their imagination and thinking processes to provide the answers but also help to increase their confidence in expressing themselves and enrich them with new vocabularies. Other children in the group will talk about what they have made and why. Each of them is using their cognitive skills and relying on their language and communication to be understood by and to understand others.

Here is a simple recipe you can try at home:

Cooked playdough

• 1 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 4 tsp cream of tartar
• food coloring

Mix dry ingredients together. Add water, oil and coloring. Blend until smooth. Stir over heat until mixture comes away from the sides, forming a ball. Tip the dough onto a board and knead well.

Uncooked playdough

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 cup salt
• 1 tsp food coloring
• 1 cup water (hot water works best)

Put flour and salt in bowl. Mix water, oil and coloring and combine with dry ingredients. Knead well — extra flour may be required. Add items such as essences and herbs for different smells and textures.

What an incredible substance play dough is!!