The Benefits of Playing/Making Homemade Play Dough
By Joanne Agsalud, M.S., OTR/L
The use of playdough is a great way to help kids develop the skills they need to foster independence inside and outside of the house. There are numerous activities that can be created with playdough that can develop the motor skills needed to succeed when they start pre-school. Another benefit is that making your own playdough at home can provide hours of learning and engagement at home.
Here are just some of the benefits of playing with and/or making play dough with kids:
In-Hand Manipulation Skills - is the ability to pick and maneuver or reposition an object with one hand. Tasks such as placing small balls of playdough on a table, picking them up one at a time, and moving them all into the palm of the hand can help develop these skills. In-hand manipulation skills are used frequently in buttoning, lacing shoes, opening a screw-on lid, and rotating a pencil to use the eraser.
Finger Isolation - is the ability to separate and move one finger individually. This skill contributes to having proficiency in tool use, such as typing on a keyboard and playing an instrument.
Bilateral Coordination - making and playing with playdough encourages the use of both hands in an organized manner, such as both hands rolling the dough into a long log or one hand stabilizing the bowl while the other hand mixes the playdough ingredients with a spoon. Making separate but coordinated actions of both hands increases in complexity as a child becomes of school-age, such as cutting with scissors and using an eraser while stabilizing the paper with the other hand.
Hand Strengthening - pounding, squishing, or molding the play dough will strengthen the small muscles of the hands, which allows for precision grasp patterns such as finger-thumb opposition (the ability to rotate the thumb so that it can touch each fingertip of the same hand), to be able to manipulate small items effectively (e.g. buttons, coins, bits of food).
Sensory Experience - handling play dough can be a great starting tool for kids who are over-sensitive to tactile stimuli, with its consistency being firm, solid, and dry compared to slime or glue.
Problem Solving - encouraging kids to learn how to figure out how to measure the ingredients to making playdough, how to make shapes out of playdough, and how to make their creative vision come to life with playdough help them adjust their movements and constantly refine their motor skills.
Now that we have gone some over the benefits of using/making play dough, here is an easy
playdough recipe that can also be air-dried. The playdough can be rolled out, cut with a cookie
cutter, and air-dried overnight, which then provides a great surface to decorate, as it takes
pencils and crayons well:
1 cup corn starch
1⁄2 cup liquid glue (e.g. Elmer’s white glue)
Food coloring (optional)
Add the two ingredients in a bowl and mix it together until well combined. You can also knead it on a flat surface to make the mixture smooth faster. It should have the same consistency of fondant icing.
Here are some play dough activities that can get you started on building your kid’s skills:
1) Rolling small balls out of play dough, only using the thumb and index finger or using three fingers (thumb, index, and middle finger)
2) Flicking small balls of play dough into a target (e.g. paper cup)
3) Roll the play dough into a pizza and use a plastic knife of scissors to cut slices
4) Pushing beads or small toys in the playdough and hiding them into the playdough for them to find them
5) Roll playdough into logs to use for building basic lines, shapes, or letters