Inclusive Sensory-Rich Nature Play for Children’s 7 Senses
A free webinar about how children experience the world through seven sensory systems — and how nature-rich environments can support regulation, learning, connection, and play.
Children experience outdoor spaces with their whole bodies.
Nature play offers children an incredible range of sensory experiences. Movement, texture, sound, balance, pressure, light, temperature, and changing natural materials all become part of how children play, learn, connect, and understand the world around them.
In this free webinar, Jena explores the seven sensory systems and how sensory-rich nature play can support children’s nervous systems, deepen their play, and create stronger opportunities for learning and connection.
There Are More Than Five Senses
Sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are only part of the sensory picture. Children also rely on their vestibular and proprioceptive systems to understand movement, balance, body position, force, and where they are in space.
These systems are constantly working together. A child climbing a log, carrying a heavy branch, balancing on a stone, digging in soil, or swinging is having a complex sensory experience — often without thinking about it consciously.
When we look at outdoor play through a sensory lens, we start to see just how much information children are gathering every moment.
Supporting Regulation, Play & Learning
Sensory-rich nature play can help children regulate their nervous systems while creating richer opportunities for exploration, learning, and social connection.
The goal is not to create one “perfect” sensory environment for every child. Children have different sensory needs. A supportive space offers enough variety that children can seek movement, challenge, texture, quiet, pressure, sound, or retreat depending on what their bodies need.
Designing for Neurodiverse Children
The webinar also looks at how outdoor play and learning spaces can be evaluated and adapted for children with different sensory profiles, including neurodiverse children.
Jena walks through practical ways to examine the sensory quality of an existing space and identify opportunities to make it more inclusive, supportive, and engaging for the children who actually use it.
Inclusive Sensory-Rich Nature Play for Children’s 7 Senses
Watch the replay through Early Childhood Investigations and explore practical ways to create sensory-supportive outdoor play and learning environments.
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