Posted on 12/05/2016
Did you know that soft modeling dough can be more than simply a fun way to make the best of indoor time? We touched on some of the benefits of modeling dough in Part 1 and Part 2. But this time we’ll explore three of the main kinds of benefits in a little more detail.
Strengthen Hand Muscles
Especially for the preschool set, strengthening those hand muscles is necessary for learning how to write. While coloring is one way to encourage this, boys particularly may shy away from any kind of writing, because their gross motor skills develop more quickly than their fine motor skills. In short, coloring can feel like work! However, modeling dough lives up to its name and feels like fun. So while they’re having fun, kids can actually strengthen the muscles they’ll need to make the hard work of writing feel, well, a little less like work. (Sneaky, huh?) Simply manipulating the modeling dough will accomplish this aim, but you can also up the ante by using various tools to incorporate different kinds of hand motions:
• Use a hole punch
• Teach scissor skills
• Mash with a potato masher
• String beads
Encourage Pretend Play
From making a play scene from modeling dough, like a beach theme, to using modeling dough as the ground on which structures and characters can be stood up (like this ice skating set), there are so many ways to encourage pretend play with modeling dough! You can even make this edible hot chocolate modeling dough and make your own hot cocoa stand at which to serve it up! You can even create a set like this one to coordinate with a favorite book or movie and let your child use the modeling dough to recreate the story.
Provide Soothing Sensory Input
If you think there’s just something calming about pushing and squeezing and rolling and re-configuring modeling dough, you’re right! The combination of focus and physical touch and movement are all considered therapeutic, especially for highly sensitive children or moments when emotions are running high. When you add in fragrances, especially particularly calming ones like lavender, you can increase the sensory impact. You could also switch up the recipe and make this “melting dough” for variety. Incorporating music that coordinates with the theme or provides additional calming potential can also allow your modeling dough session to provide an even greater emotional impact. Perhaps even more significantly, the relational connection with a parent who is also engaging in the play session multiplies the potential for positive emotions.
Those are only a few of the most obvious benefits of modeling dough. Some neurologists are even finding that there may be a special way the squishing movement can strengthen synapses in the brain that will be used for high-level math and science!
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