Whether you are a parent, teacher or student, human touch is vital for bonding, emotional health and cognitive development. Playful activities that encourage the sense of touch don't have to be complex, time consuming or require expensive toys. They can be as simple as a feather or your voice.
Touch is an incredibly popular sport that originated in Sydney, Australia. It is played globally by both men and women and involves teams of six players running downfield, touching a ball and scoring points. In some versions of the game, players must run from one safety zone to another without being touched by a defender (known as black peter in central Europe, wall-to-wall in Great Britain or pom-pom pull away in parts of modern Greece). Other variants include group tag and freeze tag, where children who have been tagged are frozen in place until another player unfreezes them with a touch.
A naughty version of this game involves two partners who each privately write down the top five body parts they would like to be tickled for foreplay. They then reveal their list and each other has to try and guess the correct order. If they get it right, the partner spends 60 seconds kissing or stimulating the part they have named. If they get it wrong, they have to do the same for the next two body parts until they make it right.
A fun sensory activity that is not too messy is finger painting. This allows students or children to experiment with different textures and is a great way to promote finger stimulation.
