Play to Progress

Lead Your Child to Success Using the Power of Sensory Play

By: Allie Ticktin

Narrated by: Allie Ticktin

A game-changing book on child development - and the importance of physical play - for this digital and screen age.

For children to develop to their fullest potential, their sensory system - which, in addition to the big five of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, includes movement and balance (vestibular), body awareness (proprioception), and internal perception (interoception) - needs to be stimulated from the time they are born. Their senses flourish when they explore their environment by touching new textures, including their food, running, jumping, climbing, and splashing outside.

As an occupational therapist with a specialty in sensory integration, Allie Ticktin has seen an increase in cases of children who struggle to sit in circle time or at their desk upright and who are delayed in walking, talking, and playing by themselves and with their peers. In the recent past, kids spent their days playing outside and naturally engaging their sensory system and building key developmental skills. But with increasing time pressures for both kids and parents, children are spending more time in front of screens and less time exploring and interacting with their environment.

The good news is that boosting your child’s sensory development doesn’t take enormous amounts of time or supplies or any special skills. Here, Ticktin discusses the eight sensory systems and how a child uses them and offers easy, fun activities - as well as advice on setting up a play area - that will encourage their development so that your little one will be better able to respond to their emotions, build friendships, communicate their needs, and thrive in school. That’s the power of sensory play.

This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF that contains exercises and illustrations from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Allie Ticktin (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Ticktin offers in her excellent debut dozens of suggestions to help parents maximize their child’s development through games.... Full of fun, this guide is worth a look for parents of young children." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"An important read for every parent, teacher, or anyone caring for children, Play to Progress provides an essential lens through which to understand children’s needs and behaviors that most parents and professionals don’t know about. In a world where children don’t get enough play, movement, or autonomy, now, more than ever, we need to intentionally tend to the sensory needs of children. Allie Ticktin brilliantly walks readers through what we need to know and how to apply that knowledge in meaningful, fun, and practical ways." (Tina Payne Bryson, LCSW, PhD, New York Times best-selling coauthor of The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline and author of The Bottom Line for Baby)

"To wean them from screens and engage them in three-dimensional, hands-on, body-on fun, these imaginative sensory-motor ideas are just what today’s kids need. The activities will help them develop a sense of self, feel comfortable in their bodies, and grow to become confident, competent, 'in-sync' children." (Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA, author of The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, coauthor of Growing an In-Sync Child)

Excellent information for Special Education Teache

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a Kindergarten through Second grade Exceptional Education Teacher and all of the information was spot on. I am looking forward to implementing the different strategies