Sensory Play for Autism: 8 Must-Try Activities

Key Points:

• Sensory play helps children with autism explore the world through touch, sight, sound, and movement while supporting cognitive, emotional, and social development.
• Structured, hands-on activities can improve focus, reduce anxiety, and build foundational skills for learning and daily living.
• Parents can incorporate simple sensory activities at home or alongside professional ABA therapy for consistent, meaningful growth.

Children with autism often experience the world differently due to sensory sensitivities and processing differences. Everyday experiences—like a breeze on the skin, a crowded room, or a noisy environment—can feel overwhelming or under-stimulating. Sensory play offers a structured way to engage your child’s senses safely, helping them explore, learn, and enjoy new experiences at their own pace.

By incorporating sensory activities into daily routines, parents can support cognitive growth, emotional regulation, and social skills development. These activities are especially powerful when paired with evidence-based interventions such as ABA therapy, which can help reinforce learning, guide behavior, and turn play into purposeful development.

Below, we explore eight must-try sensory play activities that can transform everyday moments into learning opportunities, support your child’s development, and make play hands-on and enjoyable.

Water Play: Exploring Texture and Movement

Water play is a versatile activity that engages touch, sight, and motor planning. Filling a shallow basin or sensory bin with water, and adding cups, spoons, and small toys, provides endless learning opportunities.

• Benefits: Water play encourages fine motor skill development, hand-eye coordination, and problem-solving. Children practice pouring, scooping, and observing cause and effect.
• How to implement: Add measuring cups or containers of various sizes to encourage comparisons and counting. Floating and sinking toys allow children to predict outcomes, enhancing cognitive skills.
• Sensory considerations: Adjust water temperature for comfort. If your child is sensitive to touch, start with gloves or toys that reduce direct contact with water.

Water play is not only calming but also a great opportunity to reinforce turn-taking and social interaction, skills that are often emphasized in ABA therapy.

Sensory Bins: A World of Texture and Discovery

Sensory bins are containers filled with materials such as rice, sand, beans, or shredded paper. Children explore with hands, spoons, and small tools, discovering textures and experimenting with objects.

• Educational value: Sensory bins can strengthen fine motor skills, support focus, and encourage imaginative play. Mixing materials with small toys or letters can also support early literacy and numeracy.
• Tips for success: Introduce new materials gradually to prevent overwhelm. Label objects with pictures or words to encourage recognition and language development.
• Interactive play: Parents can model digging, scooping, or creating small “scenes” to inspire pretend play, turning sensory exploration into meaningful learning moments.

Sensory bins are especially effective when integrated into ABA therapy strategies, reinforcing attention, following instructions, and cooperative play.

Playdough and Clay: Strengthening Hands and Minds

Manipulating playdough or clay engages tactile, visual, and proprioceptive senses. Rolling, squishing, and molding these materials strengthens hand muscles and encourages creativity.

• Motor skill development: Repeated pressing, pinching, and rolling improves fine motor coordination, which is essential for writing, self-feeding, and dressing.
• Cognitive and language support: Encourage your child to describe their creations—color, shape, or size—boosting vocabulary and descriptive language skills.
• Calming and regulating: The repetitive motions can reduce anxiety and offer a sensory “reset” during overstimulating moments.

For children receiving ABA therapy, therapists often use playdough to target specific goals, such as following multi-step directions, turn-taking, or requesting materials verbally or nonverbally.

Music and Rhythm: Engaging Hearing and Movement

Music engages multiple senses at once, combining auditory input with movement and sometimes visual cues. Simple instruments, clapping, or dancing to rhythm can be highly motivating.

• Benefits for development: Music supports auditory discrimination, timing, and coordination. It also offers a predictable structure, which can be reassuring for children with sensory sensitivities.
• How to start: Use shakers, drums, or even pots and spoons. Clap or tap in simple rhythms and encourage your child to imitate or create their own patterns.
• Language and social connection: Singing songs with repeated phrases encourages verbal imitation, while group music play fosters turn-taking and social engagement.

ABA therapy often incorporates music-based activities to reinforce learning goals, linking motivation with positive reinforcement and skill-building.

Sensory Walks: Experiencing the Outdoors

A sensory walk turns a regular outing into an immersive learning experience. Encourage your child to notice what they feel, hear, and see in nature or the neighborhood.

• Opportunities for engagement: Ask your child to identify textures underfoot, sounds in the environment, or colors they notice. Collect leaves, rocks, or flowers for a follow-up sensory activity at home.
• Motor and balance skills: Walking on uneven surfaces or stepping over obstacles helps develop coordination, proprioception, and spatial awareness.
• Emotional regulation: Fresh air and movement can help children release energy, reduce stress, and improve attention span.

Sensory walks provide real-world context to ABA therapy lessons, reinforcing observational skills and language development through natural exploration.

Visual Play: Lights, Colors, and Shapes

Visual stimuli are powerful tools for children with autism, particularly when paired with interactive play. Using items like glow sticks, colored beads, or stacking blocks encourages focus and problem-solving.

• Enhancing visual processing: Sorting objects by color, size, or shape strengthens cognitive skills and attention to detail.
• Fine motor and coordination benefits: Stacking blocks or threading beads improves hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
• Calming or stimulating effects: Soft lighting or gentle color changes can soothe, while high-contrast patterns may stimulate alertness—adjust based on your child’s sensory preferences.

In ABA therapy, visual support is often paired with instructions and reinforcement to improve task completion and engagement.

Messy Play: Encouraging Creativity Safely

Messy play can include finger painting, shaving cream, or edible sensory materials like oatmeal or gelatin. While it may seem chaotic, this type of play provides critical sensory input.

• Developmental benefits: Messy play enhances tactile exploration, fine motor strength, and creativity. Children learn cause and effect while experimenting with textures and colors.
• Language and social skills: Narrating the activity encourages vocabulary growth, while shared messy play supports turn-taking and collaboration.
• Managing sensitivities: Introduce messy textures slowly and offer control with tools like brushes, spoons, or gloves.

Parents can collaborate with ABA therapists to incorporate messy play goals, reinforcing communication, cooperation, and sensory tolerance in structured ways.

Proprioceptive and Movement Play: Building Body Awareness

Activities that involve heavy work, stretching, or balance engage the proprioceptive sense—the body’s awareness of position and movement. This can include climbing, jumping on a mini-trampoline, or pushing weighted objects.

• Motor skill benefits: Strengthens muscles, improves coordination, and develops spatial awareness.
• Calming effect: Proprioceptive input can regulate energy levels, helping children feel more centered and focused.
• Practical implementation: Encourage crawling through tunnels, carrying a basket of toys, or gentle resistance exercises to integrate movement into play.

ABA therapists often incorporate these activities to promote self-regulation, attention, and functional daily skills alongside targeted behavioral goals.

Bringing It All Together: Integrating Sensory Play and ABA Therapy

Sensory play opens a world of exploration, learning, and self-regulation for children with autism, making every moment of play both meaningful and joyful. Its benefits grow even further when paired with structured support through ABA therapy, which turns sensory experiences into purposeful learning opportunities—helping children develop communication, follow directions, regulate emotions, and build confidence.

At Total Care ABA, we partner with families to create individualized programs that integrate sensory play into therapy, tailored to each child’s unique strengths and needs. From strengthening fine motor skills with playdough to encouraging social interaction through music and rhythm, our ABA therapy provides a structured yet fun framework for consistent progress.

By blending hands-on sensory activities with evidence-based ABA strategies, every session—whether at home or in our therapy centers—supports your child’s learning, development, and independence. Parents can see real growth as children engage with new experiences, practice important skills, and gain confidence in a safe and nurturing environment.

Reach out to us today to learn more about our programs and how our ABA therapy in Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Maine, Utah, Tennessee, and Indiana can help your child turn play into meaningful progress.