Tactile Perception Activities

These tactile perception activities will help your child to learn to process touch feedback from the hands in order to use the hand muscles more effectively. They will encourage your child to learn to “look” with the hands.

Accurate Tactile Perception is an Essential Base for good fine motor skills.

First, create a basic feely bag or use an simple cloth bag. Then try some of these tactile perception activities.

Easy Handbag Hunt (for preschool children or for a child whose skills are very poor)
You need: an old handbag or even a grocery bag, various household objects and toys eg fork, spoon, small ball, toy car, fake flower, toy cup etc
How to do it:
First make sure your child knows the names of all the objects you will be using. Then place the objects into the bag. Ask your child to feel an object and tell you what it is. Your child should use both hands to manipulate the object. After “guessing”, let your child pull it out to see if it is right. If correct, your child gets to “keep” it, if wrong, you get to "keep" it. See who has the most items at the end of the game.

Upgrade to asking your child to find a specific item. The more items are in the bag, the harder this activity will be.

Grocery Hunt
You need: a grocery bag and a few unopened packets of non-perishables eg rice, popcorn, dried beans, macaroni, pasta shells, jelly sweets …

Harder Handbag Hunt (this game can be played on 2 levels)
You need:an old handbag, or a homemade “feely bag”. 2 sets each of various toys eg: shapes, toy animals – see photos in gallery below for examples. If you don’t have 2 sets of the same toys, then use pictures to help the child identify the animal – eg a farm book to use with a farm animal set.

The gallery below shows some of the toys you can use in the "harder handbag hunt". The instructions for playing these tactile perception activities follow the gallery.

	Before beginning, let your child feel each shape as you describe it (or let your child describe it); for example: a circle is round and has no corners; a square has 4 corners and 4 sides all the same, but the diamond has 2 narrow/sharp corners and 2 wider corners etc.
	Point out the difference in the dinosaurs: some have 4 legs all the same size, some have 2 big back legs, and 2 small “arms”. Feel the different arrangement of spikes, horns etc.
	Here, Jamie is feeling the features of this dinosaur before commencing the game.
	Sea Creatures: the arms of a starfish feel different to the arms of an octopus. Feel the difference between a seal and a dolphin etc.

How to play this game:
Put one set of the toys (eg shapes) in the bag, and place the other set on the table for the child to look at. Before you start, make sure your child knows the basic properties of the toys he/she will be looking for. Your child should use both hands to manipulate the toy. Check out the photos below to see how this tactile perception activity is played!

Handbag Hunt Level One
In this activity, your child puts the hands in (both hands if possible, but if not, then use the dominant hand), picks up an object, feels it, identifies it and pulls it out to check only AFTER identifying it. If correct, your child gets to “keep” it, if wrong, you get to "keep" it. The winner is the one with the most animals/shapes at the end.

If your child struggles to identify objects with these tactile perception activities, you can verbally assist by eliminating possibilities – is it round like a ball, has it got 4 sides or 3 sides. Has it got 4 legs, has it got a long tail or a short tail etc?

Handbag Hunt Level Two
Ask your child to find a specific object. This is usually harder as it involves your child identifying and discarding possibilities before deciding on the one that feels right.

Children usually love the fun of these tactile perception activities, so try one today!

Did you find these tactile perception activities helpful?
Then check out Fine Motor Activities for more ideas to help your child!

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