Tactile Perception

Tactile Perception (sometimes referred to as touch perception) is the brain’s ability to understand (perceive) what the hands are feeling.

When you shove your hand into your bulging handbag and fish around to retrieve your keys, it is your touch perception that will help you to find your keys without using your eyes!

This is what poor touch perception feels like!

If your child has poor touch perception, it feels to him as if he is doing everything with rubber gloves on.There is probably not anything wrong with the nerves in his hand, but his brain is not processing the information from his hands properly.

So perhaps he is really clumsy, always dropping small items or letting things slip out of his grasp. Or perhaps he squeezes the pencil really tightly so he can “feel” it properly to control it. Does this sound like your child?!

	It is easy to make a tactile perception “Feely Bag” with an old cloth bag or handbag, and a safety pin.
	Simply pin the center of the cloth bag, so that two holes are created, big enough for your child’s hands to enter. Voila, “Feely Bag”!

Or try this if you like sewing...

	Sew a flat “Feely Bag” with 4 holes or “arms”. This would enable you to put your hands in the other side, either to help your child or to have a race with him to see who finds the object first.
	Another sewing idea is to make an elasticated cloth top that fits over the top of a shoebox or large ice-cream container. It needs to have 2 hand/arm holes – I find that stretchy ribbing makes great “holes”.

Now have fun with these Tactile Perception Activities!

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