Written by Zoë Duff – Literacy Specialist and founder of The Phive.

As a phonics specialist and experienced teacher of early years, I’ve spent years helping children take their first steps into reading. I know that for many little learners, the process of ‘cracking the reading code’ can feel daunting. But learning to read shouldn’t only be about books and flashcards—multi-sensory play is an incredible tool that brings reading to life, making it fun, engaging, and, most importantly, effective.

Curiosity Corner has created an incredible range of safe, high-quality resources for you to use at home to give your child those all-important sensory experiences. Their sensory play kits, scented playdough, and playdough stampers offer a fantastic way to introduce early literacy skills through hands-on learning. Whether your child is just beginning to explore sounds and letters or is building confidence in blending and segmenting, using sensory-rich activities can really help make learning memorable and meaningful.

Why Multi-Sensory Play is so Important

Children learn best when they are actively involved and engaging a range of senses. Having a multi-sensory approach to supporting your child at home greatly helps with the following:

• Strengthening memory and recall through hands-on experiences. When children engage in sensory play, multiple areas of the brain are activated, creating stronger neural connections. For example, tracing letters in sand or forming them with playdough engages the motor cortex, visual cortex, and auditory system when paired with saying the sound aloud. These multi-sensory interactions reinforce memory pathways, making it easier for children to recall letter shapes and sounds later.

• Encouraging engagement by making learning playful and interactive. The brain releases dopamine when children enjoy themselves. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to motivation and pleasure and creates positive reinforcement around learning. Playful, sensory-rich activities transform tasks into adventures, keeping children interested and willing to engage for longer periods.

• Supporting different learning styles. Children learn in different ways. Some are visual learners who benefit from seeing letters and words, while others learn best through repeated auditory exposure to sounds. Kinaesthetic learners thrive when they can move and manipulate materials. Multi-sensory play naturally accommodates all these learning styles, ensuring no child is left behind.

• Boosting confidence by creating a fun and pressure-free learning environment. When children explore letters and sounds through sensory play, they have opportunities to engage without the fear of making mistakes. They can squash a playdough letter and try again or jump to a different word if they don’t recognise one. This sense of freedom helps build confidence and resilience, key traits for becoming confident, lifelong readers.

As parents and educators, we want to make reading an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Getting involved, messy, and working alongside your child at times is a powerful way to help them build confidence and encourage natural, open conversation about what is happening. Modelling is very important, and what better way to do this than in a playful, multi-sensory way!

Below are some simple but powerful ways to use multi-sensory play to support phonics and early reading at home.

Fun & Engaging Multi-Sensory Reading Activities

1. Dough Sound Buttons. A great way to help your child understand how letter sounds are divided up within words is to use sound buttons. Try writing some simple words onto a big piece of paper and having some playdough rolled into balls. One ball should go under each sound within the word. The word Cat would have three balls of playdough, one underneath each letter; the word ship would have a stretched-out ball under the /sh/ sound and then a ball under the /i/ and a ball under the /p/. You can pre-place the balls and ask your child to squash them as they ‘decode’ the word!
2. Playdough Letter Build. Use playdough rolled into thin sausages for children to form letters from the dough while saying the corresponding sounds and words beginning with those sounds. This strengthens letter recognition, letter formation, and fine motor skills through play. This is also a great way for some adult modelling and side-by-side interaction!
3. Jump and Read.  Write simple words or phonemes on pieces of paper and spread them across the floor. Call out a word or sound and have your child jump to the correct one. This movement-based activity is particularly effective for children who learn best through physical movement. You could also do this with small world characters. Have them jump on the pre-formed playdough sounds or stamped sounds spread out in a tray.
4. Play Base Sound Hunt. Curiosity Corner has a great range of play base grains, which are brilliant for hiding things! Simply write a selection of sounds onto slips of paper or use sound cards. Place the sounds on the bottom of a tray, cover with grains, and challenge your child to find the sound you say or the sound that is at the start of the word you say.

Bringing It All Together

Reading isn’t just about recognising letters—it’s about making connections, developing confidence, creating patterns, and exploring. Multi-sensory play taps into the natural ways children learn, turning reading practise into an adventure rather than a task.

I’m so happy to be writing this guest post for Curiosity Corner. Their play-based resources are exactly the kind of tools that help little learners thrive. If you’re looking for ways to support your child’s early reading journey through hands-on, sensory-rich play, check out their range of sensory tools, playdough, grains and wonderful mindful mixtures.

For more phonics-based learning ideas, visit The Phive, where I specialise in creative literacy resources for children aged 3-12. Together, we can make learning to read an exciting and rewarding experience!

Give these activities a try and let us know how they work for your child—we’d love to hear about your multi-sensory reading adventures!