Tacpac – Sensory Play

As any parent knows, you find yourself doing lots of weird and wonderful things to keep your little one entertained and this is no different when you have a child with additional needs. If anything the activities can be even more bizarre and it is so wonderful to watch your child’s reaction to them.

This week’s post is about where we are right now and the activities we are doing to bring along Aiya’s development. As a child with delayed development Aiya has to be taught to do what most children will figure out on their own, or imitate after only a few times of being shown how. Our current goal is to help Aiya understand the world around her and respond to the cues that are visual, audio and/or physical.

We are very lucky to be seen by a brilliant service called Portage, which is a home visiting service for pre-school children with special needs provided by the local authority. The amazing portage worker we have exposes us to lots of fun ways to help Aiya’s progress. This month she introduced us to Tacpac, the pack includes a fan, a wooden spatula, little mops, pot scourer, massage oil and a blanket…. No, the pack is not giving you the tools to get your little one to help with domestic chores. It aims to use touch and music to help your little one align their senses to help with processing difficulties.

Tacpac also includes a CD with music specially designed for the sensory experience. Specific tracks are to be played with a specific item and rather cleverly the music imitates the movement of the item. Whilst the music is playing you rhythmically pat or flick the item specific to that track over your little ones body…. Yes it all sounds a little odd, but Aiya loved it! It really engaged her and the repetition allowed her to process the sound and touch together. Now when she sees the first item she gets excited as she know what’s coming and the fact that she is anticipating an event is amazing! Every little step Aiya takes fills me with joy and I’m hoping these baby steps will help her have as full a life that she has the potential to have.