What is fabric play?
Fabric play involves playing with pieces of fabric in any way that your child wants – for example, dancing with fabric, playing dress-ups or building cubbyhouses.
Why is fabric play good for kids?
Fabric play gives your child plenty of interesting fabrics to look at, touch and feel. Working out what to do with different fabrics helps kids build imaginative and creative skills. It also helps with fine motor skills and gross motor skills.
What you need for fabric play
You can do fabric play with fabrics from around your home. You just need a range of fabrics of different lengths, colours and textures. For example, you could use scarves, bedsheets and blankets.
How to do fabric play
- Give your child a pile of fabric, and let them explore it at their own pace. You could say, ‘I thought you might like to play with this. I wonder what you could do?’
- If you need to, suggest ideas for fabric play, like dancing with fabric, creating costumes, hanging fabric over chairs or tables to make a cubbyhouse or den, or looking through coloured fabric to create a coloured filter.
- For safety, always make sure fabrics are breathable and aren’t wrapped tightly around your child’s body. This will help to prevent strangulation or suffocation.
How to adapt fabric play to suit children with diverse abilities
Children with low vision or blindness
The feel of different fabrics is important for children with low vision. You could try using a range of fabrics, including:
- very light fabrics like scarves
- smooth and silky fabrics like satin
- rough fabrics like hessian
- heavy fabrics like thick blankets
You could begin by gently moving the fabrics over your child’s hands so they can feel the sensation.
Fabrics with high-contrast colours can also be good.
Children with restricted mobility
Your child might need you or another carer to help with some fabric play, like building cubbyhouses. Your child could lead the play by telling you what they want you to do.
Children with sensory sensitivities
You could reduce other sensory stimulation while children play with the fabric. For example, lower the volume or turn off background music and avoid flashing lights or screens. Introduce new textures and colours slowly. Check in with your child regularly to ask whether they’re enjoying it.
You can get more ideas for adapting this activity from our articles on play and autistic children and play and children with disability. You might also like to explore our other activity guides. They can all be adapted to suit children with diverse strengths and abilities.