5 Reasons Why the Humble Playdough is Good for Kids

There’s a reason why the humble playdough is so well loved.

Not only is it a fun sensory experience great for developing fine motor skills, it is fabulous for extending a child’s speech and language skills, their social and play skills, and even their early literacy skills. Here are some creative ways to utilise the benefits of playdough to teach your children crucial skills of early childhood, in a way that they will love.

1. By rolling, squishing, pinching, folding, bending, pushing, and poking the playdough, you can reinforce a beautiful range of action words.
2. Make a long snake, round eyes, or choose between the red or green playdough as you play. This reinforces early childhood concepts and describing words.
3. Create a birthday cake with the playdough! Place playdough candles on top, sing a birthday song to celebrate teddy’s birthday, and serve everyone a slice of that yummy cake. This fun and creative activity can help to stimulate your child’s imagination and build up their pretend-play skills.
4. As you play with playdough, make sure you emphasise sharing the playdough cutters, taking turns with the roller and sharing the different colours. This practices some very important yet tricky social skills with your child.
5. Try shaping a string of playdough into numbers, or bend it to form the letters in your child’s name! This simple play activity reinforces early literacy skills that are the building blocks to learning to read and write.

So if in doubt or on a rainy day, bring out the humble playdough.

You might also be interested in Sequencing Activities with Children.