4 Surprising Benefits of Sensory Play for Your Preschooler

If you have heard that the rules around mobile phones and electronic devices in early childhood settings have changed, you are right. If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, these changes are already in effect.

Here is a plain-English breakdown of what changed, why it happened, and what it means for your family.

Why Did the Laws Change?

The changes were introduced as a child safety measure. In 2025, Australia’s Education Ministers agreed to amend the Education and Care Services National Law to address concerns about the potential for personal devices to be used to capture, store, or transmit images of children in care without authorisation.

The intent is straightforward: children in early learning settings deserve an environment where their privacy and safety are actively protected.

What Changed Nationally

From 27 February 2026, amendments to the national Education and Care Services National Law took effect across Australia. Under these changes, educators and staff who work directly with children are restricted from using personal electronic devices in care settings.

Before this, from 1 September 2025, all early childhood education and care services nationwide were required to have written policies in place addressing the use of digital devices.

What Changed in NSW

NSW moved ahead of the national timeline. The Education and Care Services (Supply, Authorisation and Use of Devices) Order 2025 took effect on 6 November 2025, applying across NSW’s 6,000 or more early learning services, including long day care centres, preschools, and family day care.

Under this order, educators and staff must use service-issued or service-authorised devices rather than their own personal devices when working directly with children.

What Counts as a Personal Device?

The definition is broad. A personal device is any device owned by an individual (not the approved provider) that is capable of capturing, storing, or transmitting an image. This includes:

Mobile phones
Smartwatches
Cameras and tablets
iPads and laptops
Hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards
Wearables such as camera glasses

Who Does the Ban Apply To?

The restrictions apply to anyone working directly with children at a service, including permanent and casual educators, students on placement, volunteers, contractors, and allied health professionals delivering programs on-site.

Parents, carers, and other visitors are not covered by the ban. In NSW, parents and carers remain free to use their personal devices during drop-off, pick-up, centre visits, and events involving their own children. There are also authorised exceptions for essential purposes, including emergencies and health or disability support needs.

What About Screen Time for Children?

These new laws specifically address staff device use, not children’s screen time. Screen time limits for young children are not mandated within childcare regulation at a national level.

The relevant guidance comes from the federal Department of Health and Aged Care’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which recommend no screen time for children under 2 years, and no more than 1 hour per day for children aged 2 to 5 years. These are health guidelines, not regulatory requirements.

What This Means for Your Family

If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, their service is already required to operate under these rules. Any educator or staff member working directly with your child should not be using a personal device to take photos or videos. Only service-authorised devices should be used for that purpose.

If you have questions about how your centre handles digital devices or image capture, you are well within your rights to ask. Most services will have a written policy in place that covers exactly this.

At Clovel, the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care is at the heart of everything we do. If you would like to know more about how we support your child across our centres, we would love to have that conversation with you.

From scooping and sifting to splashing and squishing, preschoolers love experiencing the world through their senses. Whether touching, smelling, tasting, seeing, or hearing, children use their senses to gain a better understanding of the world and their place in it, and sensory play is crucial in helping children learn for a variety of reasons.

In today’s post, we’ll discuss 4 benefits that come from sensory play…and some of them just might surprise you!

1. Improves motor skills

You might be surprised to learn that sensory play can help develop fine motor skills or build the small muscles of the hands, wrists, and fingers that children will need to successfully learn to tie shoelaces, write, button shirt buttons, and zip up their pants.

Scooping and pouring water into a container, stringing dried pasta, and playing with play dough are all examples of tactile play that strengthen fine motor skills.

But don’t forget about gross motor skills. Sensory play can also benefit the large muscle groups found in the arms, legs, and torso. Walking through a wading pool of water and crawling over sand engage the senses while strengthening the large muscles of the body. And tossing bean bags that are covered in a variety of materials and textures or playing parachute games using a large educational parachute can both improve gross motor skills.

And if you’re looking for sensory play that engages both muscle groups, look no further than music. You can strengthen fine muscle groups by letting your child hold and smash cymbals, plink along to the music on a guitar or piano, or lay down an enthusiastic beat on the drums. And dancing is a wonderful way to build large muscle groups while the auditory senses are engaged.

2. Boosts cognition

Cognitive development includes problem-solving, reasoning, thinking, and memory, and research shows that sensory play helps build important pathways in a child’s brain which, in turn, allows them to learn more complex tasks.

Science and math activities are perfect for combining sensory play and cognitive development. Math activities can include building two towers and comparing their size, creating a pattern using a set of beads or colored blocks, sorting items according to size, shape, or color, and playing a matching card game.

Sand and water tables were made for scientific discoveries while enjoying the tactile experience of sand or water play. Exploring the differences between regular sand and moon, or sticky, sand is great fun, as is a rousing game of Sink or Float wherein children predict whether certain items tossed into the water table will sink to the bottom or float on the surface.

3. Encourages creativity

Children are naturally creative (how many times has your child tossed a new toy aside only to play with the box for hours?) and sensory play provides an open-ended outlet for all that creative energy without breaking the bank.

Some fun and economical versions of sensory play that your child will love include:

Turning a run-of-the-mill paper bag into a hand puppet – you provide the markers, glue sticks, feathers, and googly eyes and your child will be occupied for hours!
Foam painting – spray shaving cream on a tabletop or counter and let your child smear the foam out and draw a picture within the margins.
Cardboard box creations – give your child the largest cardboard box you can find (appliance boxes are particularly fun) and let them turn that humble box into a car, boat, rocket ship, or fortress.

4. Improves self-awareness

You may not be familiar with the term proprioception, but the truth is it is just a fancy word for the concept of body awareness or understanding your position in relation to an object. And there’s no better place to improve body awareness than on playground equipment. You can use equipment you have in your own backyard or the playscapes found at a local park.

Some sensory activities that promote body awareness include:

Climbing ladders and moving across monkey bars
Learning to walk on a balance beam without looking down at the beam (this one takes some practice!)
Scooting or crawling through tunnels
Going down slides

But it’s important to know that playgrounds aren’t the only way to improve self-awareness. Children can also reap self-awareness benefits by bouncing on a trampoline, jumping rope, or playing hopscotch.

As is the case with any play-based learning, it’s always best to let your child take the lead. Offer your child a handful of sensory play options and allow them to choose how to spend their time. As they play, you’ll find their confidence begins to grow!

And, while independent play is important, you may want to check in with your child so you can answer questions or gently lead them to their natural conclusion. We think you’ll find sensory play so engaging for your child, you may want to join in on the fun!

Thanks for reading,
Clovel Childcare
1300 863 986

Lyn Connolly

Founder and Company Director

Lyn Connolly is the Founder and Company Director of Clovel Childcare & Early Learning Centres, a family‑owned group of eight centres across Western Sydney established from her first service at Merrylands. Active in early childhood education since 1977, she also serves as President of the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW, representing providers in state and federal consultations, media, and public hearings.

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