Play Guide 3: How to train your child’s tactile sense
The tactile sense is also known as the sense of touch. Along with the vestibular sense (balance) and proprioception (movement), the tactile sense is one of your child’s three primary senses.
The tactile sense is surprisingly important for your child’s well-being, because it’s about more than simply being able to feel whether something is smooth, soft, hard, cold, or warm.
In our third Play Guide, we have Danish sensorimotor consultant Mette D. Jensen explain what the tactile sense is and why it’s so important for your child’s development, growth, and well-being.
As an added bonus at the end, Mette also shares her best tips for training the tactile sense through fun activities and play.
What is the tactile sense and why does it matter?
We perceive everything we come into contact with through the tactile sense: You hug your child, help them get dressed, and stroke their cheek. You pull up their socks and give them tickles. Every time you and your child touch, the tactile sense is activated. Children's play tends to involve a lot of touching and physical contact too.
The tactile sense helps your child know where their own body ends and where their surroundings begin.
The tactile sense has to do with both inner and outer sensations:
The tactile sense sends messages to the brain about all the sensations our skin detects. The brain then decides whether those sensations, for example tickles, hugs, heat, cold, or having a boo boo blown on, feel pleasant or threatening.
"The tactile sense involves both inner and outer sensations. Our outer sensations are all that our skin perceives through touch. They help us explore new things and gather information. And then we have our protective inner sensations which make us pull away, defend ourselves, or fight back when something feels threatening. If our outer sense of touch “overreacts”, then little things that are actually safe, like a hug or a hat, can feel uncomfortable, because the brain instinctively interprets them as threats."
– Mette D. Jensen, Danish sensorimotor consultant
So, your child’s tactile sense can get knocked off kilter and overreact to safe sensations. When this happens, every little touch and skin-to-skin contact your child experiences throughout the day can put their nervous system on high alert.
Imbalanced tactile perception can make your child fussy and cranky
The tactile sense plays a crucial role in how your child behaves and reacts around other people. If your child perceives most tactile stimuli as threatening or uncomfortable, they may for example react by pulling away, pushing, or hitting.
“The tactile sense greatly affects our social relationships and communication, because we communicate a lot through our physical reactions. Children with imbalanced tactile perception are often very frustrated, and so are their parents.”
– Sensorimotor consultant Mette D. Jensen
A child with tactile difficulties may have strong reactions to being touched during play. Can you imagine what it’s like if your whole body screams, “THERE’S A BIG, DANGEROUS LION COMING!!!” every time a playmate in the Rainbow Room gives you a nudge or your mom wipes your nose?
When your child reacts by pushing, they are simply trying to defend themselves against an unpleasant sensation. Unfortunately, children who struggle with tactile defensiveness are often perceived as feisty, ill-behaved, or overly sensitive. But that is not necessarily true.
When children show aggression, there is always a reason behind it - and it is never because they are meanspirited or unruly.
The brain is simply misinterpreting the skin’s signals. It’s an imbalance and an attempt to escape an uncomfortable sensation. And most often, it has to do with the tactile sense.
Training can help balance your child’s tactile sense, so that the brain receives the right information and doesn’t jolt into battle stance quite as often.
Play Guide 3: How to balance the tactile sense
Children with imbalanced tactile perception often experience emotional outbursts and seem more irritable than their peers. This is hardly surprising, because being on high alert most of the time is exhausting.
Fortunately, there’s lots you can do to help. Any activity that involves physical touch helps to balance your child’s tactile sense. But doing contact activities can be difficult, because kids who are struggling with tactile input tend to shy away from touch. If your child doesn’t enjoy long cuddles and itchy clothing tags, it’s only natural if you want to go easy on them by sticking to short hugs and cutting out the tags. Until now, you may have backed off from touch and tactile challenges with the best of intentions. Those were acts of caring, so don’t feel guilty.
Now you’re aware that your kid needs a bit of help when it comes to tactile input. Below, sensorimotor consultant Mette shares some tips for engaging and balancing your child’s tactile sense in gentle, gradual, and playful ways. In her experience, some parents see their children’s well-being improve in just a few weeks with these tips.
- Find ways of creating physical contact with your child that they are comfortable with. Start slow. Rub their feet, pat their back, tickle their face with a feather. Give your child a massage with massage balls, if they prefer that over a manual skin-to-skin massage.
Auntie Kristina adds: You can also use vibrating sensory toys to give your child lots of tactile stimuli – but remember to start slow and pay attention to your child’s reactions to make sure they don’t feel too overwhelmed. - Use bath time to try out different tactile activities. Blow raspberries on your child’s belly in the water, scrub them with various kinds of cloths and sponges, and spray water using small disposable syringes from the pharmacy. Have fun with different types of bath toys.
- Collect sand at the beach and play with it. Alternatively, you can experiment with kinetic sand, which comes in many colours and varieties. You might be surprised how wonderful it feels to play with the sand, which sticks to itself without sticking to your fingers.
Start out slow and find ways to stimulate your child’s tactile sense through play
Go slow and easy and look for types of touch that your child doesn’t react strongly to. Sensorimotor activities should always be fun and enjoyable, and always on your child’s terms. As soon as your child has a negative reaction, pause and do something else. With one small step at a time, you and your child can still make a lot of progress.
We hope this Play Guide gave you some inspiration for training your child’s tactile sense. If you need more guidance, there is plenty of help to be found in Toy Academy’s large selection of toys that stimulate the tactile sense.
Thanks for reading. Maybe you’ll enjoy our other Play Guides as well.
Play Guide 1 deals with training your child's vestibular sense (balance)
Play Guide 2 deals with proprioception (movement)
This guide (Play Guide 3) is about stimulating your child's tactile sense
Play Guide 4 offers tips for developing fine and gross motor skills
