Benefits of Playing with Pottery Clay

The cute giraffe your kid that has molded is more than just a work of art. Playing with pottery clay enriches your child's life in many ways - here are some benefits of playing with pottery clay.

Improve Motor Skills

Children get to engage their arm and hand muscles through manipulating the clay. Their fine motor skills will also improve because working with clay requires hand-eye coordination. Think of all that squishing, pinching, rolling, pulling,  poking, flattening and even stamping! Little fingers and hands are strengthened whilst working with clay due to its firm nature and the larger muscles of the arms, back and shoulders are strengthened when rolling slabs or coiling clay.

Calming Effect

The tactile nature of clay can be a physical outlet for kids, releasing emotion and reducing stress. When creating clay artworks with their hands, children tend to be quiet because of the engaging nature of working with clay. The special quality of the medium keeps them engaged as their imagination takes over. The gentle stimulation is also perfect for sensory development. 

Planning and Spatial Awareness

Children must give care to carefully think about their actions – is the clay too thick, do I want to make it taller, how should this dogs’ tail look – and so on.
It forces them think about and plan what they want to do to their creations.

Sculpting clay is a three-dimensional art, and thus it requires children to put their spatial awareness skills to use. 

Problem-solving in a Safe Setting

Clay is easy to handle for small fingers and mistakes can be quickly corrected by rolling it back into a ball, so they can start over. From a roll of shapeless clay to the end product, the process helps to build confidence and motivation.

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