The Benefits Of Messy Play

By Nancy Barker

“Oh no, I don’t like my child to play with anything messy" most parents say. Messy play is usually avoided at all cost by parents everywhere. But there are too many benefits of messy play to say never... really!

Here is the scoop! Messy play stimulates the senses helping your little one develop eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. Your child’s brain is generating new neurons and synapses while they poke, mash, squeeze, pat, pick it up and smash it down. Play dough, finger-paints, water and sand play, shows your child that each of their actions have consequences. This shows them the important concept of cause and effect. All this and they are not even out of diapers yet. Children’s play is hard work!

The bathtub is a great place to enjoy water play without much mess. Be sure to provide your child with some plastic cups in different sizes to fill and dump during bath time. Fill the cup and hand it to your child and watch what happens. Soon they will be dumping out the water, filling it up again and dumping it into another cup. Learning is happening!

Finger painting with pudding is another great messy activity to do before bath time. You can discuss different colors by putting in a few drops of food coloring in vanilla pudding. Don’t forget to strip your baby down to their diaper and put in the high chair. Give your child a small amount of pudding on the tray. Your child will smash, and spread the paint on the tray, their face and hair. Give them some clean, large chunky sponge brushes or craft sticks to move the pudding paint around. By doing this your child experiences different textures that will in turn generate those neurons and connect those synapses in the brain. More learning is going on!

Play Dough is one more, fun activity that develops hand and finger coordination (small motor) and hand-eye coordination. You can make play dough out of materials you most likely have in your cupboards. The good news is the ingredients are not toxic. Place play dough or goop on the tray of high chair or on the table and show them what to do with it. If you cringe or make funny faces they will too. Show them how to mash it flat. Use cookie cutters to cut it in shapes, roll it into snakes and push it into small baking dishes. Look through your kitchen to see if there are other items you could use, always keeping your child’s safety in mind. You won’t have to worry if they taste it (and they will), you know what is in it because you made it! And yes, there will be learning happening while you and your child are having fun!


Here are some recipes for play dough’s, goop's and finger paints you can make at home. Not all of them will taste good but most should not hurt your child if small amounts are ingested and they are not allergic to the ingredients.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 c. peanut butter
2/3-1 c. nonfat dry milk
2 tbsp. honey

Mix all ingredients together add more powdered milk if necessary to make play dough dry enough to roll into balls. Use other edibles such as raisins, Chocolate Chips, to make faces or add cereal for crunch. This one tastes very good!

Goop

1 cup of cold water
2 cups of flour

Stir water slowly into flour in a bowl. Stir until the water is absorbed

Cooked Play Dough

1 cup of flour
½ cup of salt
1 to 2 tablespoons of oil
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 cup of water

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a saucepan and then add oil and water. Cook slowly over a low heat until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan and it is hard to move with a spoon. Remove from heat and cool until it can be handled. Knead. Add food coloring if desired. Store in an airtight container or zip lock bag, will keep for at least 2 months. Can omit cream of tarter but it will not keep as long. Can use kool-aid packets for color and fragrance in place of food coloring.

Oatmeal Play Dough

1 Cup Flour
1 Cup water
2 cups oatmeal

Mix ingredients together until they form a ball.

Uncooked Play Dough

¼ cup of salt
1 cup flour
¼ cup water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl and add water knead the dough to make a play dough consistency. More water can be added if needed. Use food coloring or kool-aid for color if desired.