Why some Hong Kong babies need lessons in sensory development
With toddlers moving around less, special classes are being designed to help them develop all seven of their senses
Little Billy Taylor crawls along the floor and dips his hands into a pile of what looks like wood shavings. He plays around in them for a few minutes before moving his attention to classmate Jessica Boswell who is playing with a golf ball rolling around in a tray of green paint.
With similar enthusiasm, the one-year-old dives into the paint with both hands, squelching it between his fingers and then rolling the golf ball over his face, smearing the paint in and around his mouth.
It's a scene which would have most parents and helpers frantically reaching for wet wipes. But here Billy and Jessica are left to enjoy the full sensory experience of feeling, smelling and even tasting the paint.
Despite appearances, it really is good clean fun. The shavings are a bran-based breakfast cereal mixed with uncooked brown rice and the paint is toddler-safe, made by paediatric occupational therapist Linsey Irvine.
In fact, Irvine has orchestrated every messy encounter the two will make in their 45-minute session.
Everything Billy, Jessica and their classmates at Sensory Tots encounter has been carefully planned to help stimulate sensory integration - the process in which our brain is able to process the messages we receive from all our senses together so we can react to the world around us accordingly.
