Sensory Processing Activities For Kids: Playing With Colored Spaghetti
Children with sensory processing disorder (SPD) benefit from sensory integration activities. These are great for kids on the autism spectrum. One befeficial type of activity is one that develops motor skills.
Sensory processing activities for kids should be exciting. Colored Spaghetti is a fun activity for all kids and is very easy to do.
Colored Spaghetti Sensory Activity
- Food Color
- Cooking oil
- Containers of different sizes and shapes
- Kitchen utensils (tongs, large spoons, spatula, etc.)
- Cook spaghetti according to the instructions
- Allow to cool
- Divide into containers of different sizes and/ or shapes. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to prevent sticking.
- Spread out the containers in an area that can be easily cleaned.
- If your child is old, enough allow him/her to put several drops of food coloring in each container. If not you can do this. Stir each color well until desired color is reached.
- Allow your child to enjoy and experiment.
Things to try:
Put more than one color in a container and see what it creates. (visual stimulation)
Use the tongs to pick up spaghetti (fine motor skills)
Mix up the colored spaghetti (visual stimulation & motor skills)
Transfer spaghetti to other containers using utensils (hand-eye coordination)
Mix up with fingers (tactile stimulation)
The beauty of this exercise is that it accomplishes a lot without costing a lot. It requires simple preparation and does not require much cleanup. You can try different kinds of pasta for an infinite number of variations.
This activity develops motor skills and eye-hand coordination, as well as stimulates the visual and tactile senses. Best of all, it’s safe.
While we did this outdoors, you can also do this indoors without too much more effort.