Coloured Rice

Sand and water table, with coloured rice instead.

For his birthday, we got our little man a sand and water table. But as I've mentioned before, he has sensory issues in that he doesn't like touching anything dry or fluffy with his hands. This includes sand. I don't want sand inside the house anyway, and being cold outside, the table would have had to be indoors for now. The solution: coloured rice. It's a bit easier to clean and the vibrant colour is attractive to my son, who seems to like visually stimulating things. I was pretty certain he wouldn't touch the rice either. Several months ago at an early intervention course, they had a bucket full of coloured rice with a few toys hidden in it. My son wouldn't touch it, and actually got a little distressed when pressured to. But still, it is important to help him overcome his sensory issues, and this is one way to do it. We wouldn't pressure him into it, just leave it there for him to explore if he felt so inclined.

Dyed yellow and red - his favourite colours. I knew the colours would mix eventually, and before I could get a pic of each, they already had a bit.

One good thing about my son is that he does tend to observe and sometimes copy other children. This is good! He has learned many things from his big sisters and from his cousins, and I daresay that lately the improvements I have seen are from copying kids at childcare. So we let the big girls play at the rice table too. They made such a mess, grr. But my son did pay attention - which is interesting, because when I tried to introduce him to the table, he didn't seem to be interested in the slightest. He kept looking away, or walking off, or looking at the spinning wheel in the middle instead of the rice. I didn't push the point. I left it. But I know now that this is his way of processing new information. He may not look interested, but he is actually taking it all in. When he is ready and feels confident, he will walk over and just start exploring by himself. And this is in fact what he did!

The next day when the EI worker was here, as we were preparing for another activity, he simply walked over to the table, and picked up a pinch of rice in his fingers, and watched it fall.

I was gobsmacked!

He touched it! Oh my goodness, he really touched it! He even picked some up in his fingers! Amazing!

The day after that, I found him playing at the rice all by himself. Staring hard at the colours and patterns, and giggling as he'd watch the rice fall. I think the visual part of it was very enticing for him... enough to motivate him to overcome his sensory aversion and actually touch the stuff.

You probably can't tell, but as his mummy I can - there is a very slight smile on his face. He is amused.... it's cute! :)

He really is touching the rice with his fingers!

He liked the way the rice looked in the 'channels' on the side, and was pushing them through and giggling to himself :)

Next step, building sandcastles on the beach!!


Here's hoping :)


xx