Playdough Activities To Build Skills

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From an occupational therapy perspective, playdough activities have a lot of benefits. Whether you use a big batch of homemade playdough, or little pots of Play-Doh from the supermarket, playdough can provide kids with hours of screen-free play and opportunities to build skills!

tips and ideas for playdough activities to build skills

The Benefits of Playdough Play

  • Playdough activities are a great way to help your child develop fine motor skills as well as bilateral coordination skills!
  • Most kids enjoy the sensory exploration that playdough provides, and take joy in being creative.
  • Many kids (and adults) find a big batch of homemade playdough to be very soothing to play with, possibly because it is gives great proprioceptive feedback!
  • In addition, teachers often use playdough as a medium for reinforcing math concepts and letter formations.
  • Playdough is a perfect resource for parents wanting to promote screen-free play with their kids. It can sometimes be hard for a child to figure out what to do with playdough initially, so I encourage parents to sit down with their kids and show them how to explore all the possibilities. Have fun together!

In the activities I suggest below, I have highlighted the skills that can be developed using playdough.

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Playdough for Bilateral Coordination Skills

"Get the playdough ready" is a playdough exercise I love to do with preschoolers and toddlers. It involves pounding a blob of playdough until it is flat and then squashing it back up into a ball.

This gets both sides of the body working together and helps develop bilateral coordination skills.

Pounding Playdough

  • Kindergartners and older children will be much better at pounding rhythmically than preschoolers, so challenge them to pound the playdough to a beat that you set.

  • Try an alternating movement as shown, or with both hands at the same time (symmetrical movements).
pounding playdough with alternating movements for bilateral coordinationPounding rhythmically
  • Do the pounding and squashing a few times to “get the playdough ready” before moving onto other playdough activities.


Rolling Playdough Balls

  • Break off blobs of playdough and roll them between two hands as shown to make balls of different sizes.

  • This is a great bilateral coordination activity with playdough.
rolling balls of playdough is good for bilateral skillsRolling playdough balls

The balls can be used in different creations such as a snowman, caterpillar and many other imaginative uses!


Rolling Playdough Snakes

Rolling out playdough with both hands is a good bilateral activity.

  • Have your child use both hands to roll out a long piece of playdough as shown. Older children are more able to roll playdough into an evenly shaped long snake.

  • You can use these long snakes to make a coil pot, or to form letters and numbers to reinforce letter recognition and letter formations.
rolling playdough snakes with both hands is a good bilateral activity

Discover more bilateral coordination activities here!

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Playdough Math Activities

Kids will love using playdough to learn basic fractions and math concepts.

  • Have your child roll lots of small balls and then use them to illustrate addition and subtraction.
  • You can use cookie cutters like squares and circles to create a shape, and then cut the shape into halves and quarters using a plastic knife, as shown.
  • Lines of symmetry can be indicated on playdough shapes that have been cut out with cookie cutters.
math concepts with playdough - fractionsFractions
math concepts with playdough - lines of symmetryLines of symmetry

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Playdough Projects for Kids

Kindergartners can use sets of colored Play-Doh#Ad to make specific projects. Older kids may prefer the firmer consistency of modeling clay#Ad or air-dry clay#Ad to make their creations.

  • A great idea is to make a solar system with the playdough (or modeling clay), rolling lots of different sized balls to make the planets and putting them into orbit around a larger ball to represent the sun.
  • Playdough or modeling clay can also be used to to illustrate the anatomy and structure of parts of a plant/animal.
solar system model using playdough or modelling clayPlaydough solar system
use modeling clay to make a simple model of the brainA simple model of the brain

Encourage your child to use the fingers when rolling out balls and long sausages, to practice fine motor skills. It is easier to just rolling them in the palm of the hand but we really want the fingers to do the work.

Find out how to use playdough to help develop hand strength and better finger control!

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Playdough and Sensory Processing

Playdough provides a great sensory medium, which can be used to help children who struggle with sensory processing issues.

  • Kids of all ages can find it therapeutic to work with a big ball of non-sticky playdough, because the resistance of pushing and pulling playdough with the hands gives a lot of proprioceptive feedback.
  • This can help to calm and focus a child who is feeling stressed or distracted.
playing with playdough gives lots of proprioceptive input to the hands and armsPlaydough makes hands work hard
  • Some kids object to the stickiness of the cheaper brands of shop-bought playdough.Using a well-cooked , non-sticky homemade playdough can be helpful for children who are usually over-sensitive to tactile experiences.
    Cooking the dough for a minute or two longer than the given time, can reduce potential stickiness even more.

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Related Playdough Pages

playdough activities for toddlers and preschoolersToddler playdough activities
playdough activities for fine motor skillsFine motor playdough activities
  • Homemade playdough is ideal for all ages, but particularly for preschool as it is a big batch of a single color and you don’t have to worry about the ugly mess that happens when different colored playdough gets smooshed up together.
    Try my recipe for a simple, cooked DIY playdough that is not sticky, and lasts for ages when stored correctly.
make your own homemade playdough for hours of fun!DIY cooked playdough recipe
  • For safety considerations when using playdough, check out my safety tips here. 


Incorporating playdough activities into your child's routine can unlock your child's creativity as well as helping develop important motor skills such as bilateral coordination and fine motor skills.

The therapeutic, calming benefits of playdough are a bonus, as is any time away from screens and devices!

For more resources and guidance to promote your child's normal development, check out our printable resources!

tips and ideas for playdough activities to build skills
Yes, my child needs more fine motor activities!
Yes, my child needs more bilateral activities!

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Share this page to help others!



fine motor playdough activitiesFine Motor Playdough Activities
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view my OT Mom resources - in-depth printable downloads
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