Key points
- Playdough is a great sensory and learning experience for children.
- Playing with playdough is good for creativity, muscle strength and fine motor skills.
- You can buy playdough or use homemade playdough.
Key points
Playdough is a wonderful sensory and learning experience for children.
As your child shapes the playdough into a ball or a snake, they’re thinking creatively. The squeezing, pinching and pulling movements also strengthen your child’s hand muscles and develop their fine motor skills.
And if you give your child some tools and toys to add to the playdough activity, you can really spark your child’s imagination and creativity.
Your child can play with playdough anywhere, but it’s best to sit your child at a table. This gives your child a good work surface and can stop things from getting too messy. You can use a plastic placemat if you want to keep the surface clean.
Here’s how to get started:
Here are ideas to help your child get creative with playdough:
If you’re making your own playdough, you can get your child involved. Let your child measure, pour and mix the ingredients. Your child will feel excited and proud that they’re making their own toy.
Your younger child might just want to enjoy the sensation of playdough or stick to making shapes and textures.
Your older child might like to make things like animals or people.
The most important thing is to follow your child’s lead, and let your child use the playdough in a way that suits their interests.
All children learn and develop through play. Our articles on play and autistic children and play and children with disability are great starting points for adapting this activity guide for children with diverse abilities. You might also like to explore our activity guides for children with diverse abilities.
Cooked playdough
This playdough keeps well in the fridge. Its high salt content makes it taste unpleasant. It isn’t safe to eat.
Ingredients
Method 1
Method 2
Salt-free playdough
This playdough is best for younger children. It won’t last as long as cooked playdough.
Ingredients
Method
Playdough isn’t a food, but sometimes children are tempted to taste it. If it’s hard to stop your child putting things into their mouth, use salt-free playdough, which is safer.