Sensory-Rich Summer Activities to Support Your Child’s Development: An Occupational Therapy Perspective

by Melinda Eriksen- Highly Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist

Summer is a fantastic time to engage children in meaningful, playful activities that stimulate their sensory systems and support key areas of development. As occupational therapists, we recognise the importance of using everyday experiences to promote motor coordination, sensory integration, strength, and regulation. Below are a range of simple, outdoor summer activities that are both fun and therapeutic for children, all grounded in evidence-informed practice.

These activities not only support key areas of development, but they also promote connection, exploration, and joy. Many children benefit from the rich sensory input that nature offers, and when they are given space to move, build, imagine, and get messy, they are engaging in therapy without even realising it. If you’re curious about how to tailor these experiences to your child’s unique sensory profile, an occupational therapist can help guide you further.

Swimming in Cold Water – Supporting the Vagus Nerve and Emotional Regulation

Cold water swimming or paddling in cool streams and lakes isn’t just invigorating – it also stimulates the vagus nerve. This key nerve helps regulate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting calm, focus, and improved mood. Exposure to cold water may enhance the body’s ability to manage stress, support heart rate variability, and foster resilience – all essential elements in sensory regulation.

Try: Supervised paddling in a cold river, wild swimming (where safe), or even a quick run through the garden sprinkler.

Walking Barefoot – Boosting Tactile Feedback and Working Memory

Barefoot walking, especially on varied natural surfaces like grass, sand, mud or pebbles, gives the brain rich tactile and proprioceptive input. This sensory input can improve balance, foot strength, spatial awareness, and even working memory, as children must constantly adjust their motor responses based on surface feedback.

Try: A barefoot nature walk, creating a sensory path in your garden with different textures, or a beach day with walking and running in the sand.

Climbing Trees and Rocks – Enhancing Motor Planning and Upper Body Strength

Climbing activities challenge children to use their entire body in a coordinated, purposeful way. These experiences help develop upper body strength, bilateral coordination, core stability, and motor planning – the ability to think through and execute a movement sequence. Climbing also fosters risk assessment and problem-solving skills.

Try: Visiting a park or forest with accessible trees or natural climbing features like boulders.

Always supervise and support children to explore within their ability level.

Digging and Gardening – Developing Fine Motor Skills and Deep Pressure Input

Gardening engages children in digging, scooping, planting, and watering, all of which offer resistance-based input that can calm the sensory system. It also promotes fine motor coordination, bilateral hand use, and hand strength. The natural setting helps reduce stress and encourages mindfulness.

Try: Give your child their own patch of soil or a pot to care for. Use child-sized trowels or even hands for digging and planting.

Swinging, Spinning, and Hanging – Supporting the Vestibular System

Activities like swinging, spinning, or hanging from trees and monkey bars stimulate the vestibular system, which helps children understand where their body is in space. This type of movement is crucial for balance, coordination, and self-regulation. It's also often deeply calming for children who seek movement-based input.

Try: Use a hammock, rope swing, spinning seat, or visit a local playground. Allow children to choose how long and how fast they engage, keeping safety in mind.

Nature Trails and Obstacle Courses – Encouraging Sensory Integration and Executive Functioning

Setting up outdoor obstacle courses with logs, cones, and ropes, or following a nature trail, engages multiple senses at once. These activities challenge the brain to coordinate vision, movement, and planning skills while supporting endurance and attention span.

Try: Design a backyard obstacle course with natural materials or take part in forest school sessions or trail-based scavenger hunts.

Sand and Water Play – Exploring Tactile Sensations and Fine Motor Control

Whether at the beach or in a backyard sandpit, this type of play is excellent for tactile exploration. Pouring, scooping, and moulding sand or water encourages bilateral hand use, hand-eye coordination, and imaginative play – all foundational skills for development.

Try: Create sensory trays with wet and dry sand, shells, water toys, or natural items like pinecones and leaves.

Blowing Bubbles or Dandelions – Supporting Breath Control and Oral Motor Skills

Blowing activities help strengthen the muscles around the mouth, support breath control, and offer calming sensory input. Controlled breathing is essential for regulation and can support speech and feeding skills too.

Try: Use bubble wands, blow up balloons, or make it playful by blowing dandelions or paper pinwheels in the breeze.

Building Dens and Forts

Building dens or forts using sticks, branches, or even old sheets encourages problem-solving, motor planning, and teamwork. Children must gather materials, figure out how to construct a stable shelter, and adapt their ideas as they go. These types of activities promote upper body strength, fine motor control, and executive functions like planning, sequencing, and decision-making. There’s also the added proprioceptive input from lifting, tying, and carrying, which can be regulating for many children.

Try: Create a forest den with long sticks or a simple sheet-and-peg structure in the garden.

Let your child lead the design, even if it’s wobbly or imaginative.

Heavy Work with Buckets of Water or Sand

Carrying buckets of water or sand is another deceptively simple activity that offers enormous benefits. The weight of the buckets provides heavy work through the joints and muscles, giving deep proprioceptive input that supports body awareness and emotional regulation. As children carry materials from one place to another, they’re also strengthening their core and upper body muscles and practising bilateral coordination.

Try: Fill small buckets or containers and ask your child to water plants around the garden or

transport sand between digging areas in a playful challenge.

Nature Scavenger Hunts

Nature-based scavenger hunts are a great way to combine cognitive and physical challenge. Asking children to search for specific items in the environment – like a leaf with jagged edges, a shiny rock, or three items of the same colour – promotes visual discrimination, working memory, attention, and categorisation. These hunts are also fantastic for encouraging movement and engagement with the natural world, fostering focus and curiosity.

Try: Make a picture-based scavenger list or theme the hunt around textures, colours, or

shapes. Extend it by asking your child to create a nature collage with their findings.

Jumping Between Logs or Hoops

Jumping between logs, stepping stones, or hoops laid out in a line supports balance, motor planning, and spatial awareness. Each jump requires children to anticipate the distance, adjust their movement, and coordinate both sides of their body. These dynamic balance activities also help build confidence as children learn to assess risks and test their limits safely.

Try: Lay out a sequence of hoops, logs, or stepping stones and challenge your child to get

from one end to the other without touching the ground in between.

Creative Chalk Drawing and Games

Using pavement chalk to draw or create games is another excellent outdoor option. Whether drawing large pictures, tracing shapes, or making their own version of hopscotch, children are working on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and visual-motor integration. Larger movements also engage shoulder stability and core control, which are important foundations for handwriting and other school-based tasks. Designing games supports planning, sequencing, and imaginative thinking.

Try: Encourage your child to design their own chalk obstacle course or create an outdoor

board game with movement-based instructions in each square.

Land Art and Nature-Based Creativity

Nature art or “land art” inspired by artists like Andy Goldsworthy invites children to collect leaves, sticks, stones, and petals to create patterns and pictures. This creative and calming activity strengthens fine motor control and visual perception, while also supporting mindfulness and regulation. The process of sorting, arranging, and noticing the textures and colours of natural materials can be particularly grounding and soothing.

Try: Ask your child to make a spiral from pinecones or a rainbow from different coloured leaves. Photograph their creations to celebrate their efforts.

Animal Walks and Wheelbarrow Races

Animal walks such as bear crawls, crab walks, or wheelbarrow walking are brilliant for building core strength, shoulder stability, and coordination. These types of gross motor activities provide deep pressure input, which is regulating, and they help children become more aware of their body in space. Adding in playful elements such as a race or obstacle course can make the activity even more motivating.

Try: Set up a course using cones, logs, or chalk lines and challenge your child to complete it

using different animal movements. Get involved yourself to add excitement.

Water Balloon or Sponge Tossing

Water balloon or sponge tossing games offer tactile and visual-motor input while also supporting turn-taking, timing, and emotional regulation. Children must coordinate their movements to catch or dodge splashes, and they practise impulse control and cooperation in a group setting. Using reusable sponges is a more sustainable and equally fun alternative to balloons.

Try: Set up a sponge-toss challenge with buckets or targets. You can also play catching games where the goal is to keep the sponge intact before soaking the other team.

Balancing Challenges in Nature

Balancing on logs, edging along low walls, or using a garden slackline gives children opportunities to develop their vestibular system and postural control. These types of balance challenges engage the core and improve body awareness while promoting concentration and persistence. As children focus on staying upright, they also build confidence and resilience.

Try: Go on a “balance walk” in the woods and encourage your child to try walking along any safe, raised surface they find. Use chalk lines or string at home for a low-risk version.

Messy Play with Mud and Natural Materials

Messy play in a mud kitchen or making mud pies is a sensory-rich, imaginative experience that supports tactile processing and pretend play. Stirring, scooping, and pouring help develop fine motor skills, while the freedom to experiment and create stories supports narrative thinking and sequencing. Children who are sensitive to touch may gradually build tolerance for tactile input through this kind of open-ended, child-led play.

Try: Set up a small mud kitchen area with old pots, ladles, and containers. Offer natural ingredients like grass, stones, petals, or herbs to inspire messy recipes.

A Word on Safety and Child-Led Play

Always supervise your child during outdoor activities, especially around water or climbing. Letting your child take the lead in play can encourage autonomy, motivation, and confidence. When children are given the freedom to explore within safe boundaries, they are more likely to engage deeply and reap the full sensory and developmental benefits.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating these sensory-rich activities into your family’s summer doesn’t require expensive equipment or structured therapy sessions. The natural world offers a wide range of opportunities for movement, sensory input, and developmental support. From a therapeutic standpoint, these experiences are not only joyful but also deeply beneficial for building strong, resilient, and regulated children.

If you’re ever unsure how to adapt activities to meet your child’s individual sensory profile or

developmental needs, consider speaking with a paediatric occupational therapist for tailored

guidance.

Melinda Eriksen: Highly Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist

Assessor of Developmental Coordination Disorder (Dyspraxia) and Dysgraphia.

Therapist, School Accommodation Advisor and Tribunal Expert Witness Specialist

Email: melindacots@gmail.com