The benefits of sand therapy for preschool children

Sand is an excellent natural material that can take the shape of various objects, it has flowability and allows water to pass through well.

Children move it with their hands, build castles, dig tunnels or make Easter cakes. They get carried away by the game, thereby unconsciously taking part in sand therapy. Every kid loves playing with sand. This simple activity can affect the psychological state of a child and help him with self-development.

Sand therapy is an effective method of helping a preschool child grow into a healthy, harmonious and developed personality.

Sand and its effect on a child

Sand therapy helps a child to be himself. A preschooler does not know how to express in words what he feels and what emotions he experiences.

Playing with sand helps children create different stories in the three-dimensional world, transforming them into sand figures or sand drawings. The child unconsciously transfers his fears, experiences or psychological traumas to the images.

This game is important for children, thanks to it they communicate. The toys that are used in it are tools. They help them express themselves.

Important! You cannot dictate rules to a child when he plays in the sandbox. Parents or a psychologist need to take the role of “observer”.

When playing with sand, a child shows various emotions:

destroys the figures that he built - thereby splashing out anger and irritation;
buries a toy - thus “burying” his fear or negative emotions.

With the help of sand therapy, a specialist can:

Identify psychological abnormalities in children.
Develop children with mental retardation and cerebral palsy.
Help your child socialize and learn to communicate with peers.
Develop various skills.

Therapy also has a preventive effect. Negative emotions in children can accumulate and spill out in play activities.

How do children react to sand?

Many therapists insist that the imaginary world children create in the sandbox is an example of their relationship with their mothers. In other words, when working with sand, the child reflects the mother's unconscious.

It doesn't matter how the baby plays. Some children like to put their hands completely in the sand. They like it. They have a satisfied smile, and immediately peace sets in and aggression goes away. The child tunes into a calm, creative mood.

Other children are afraid to even touch the sand with their fingertips. They are distrustful and wait for adult support. At first, it is even difficult for them to trust a parent, teacher or psychologist. They gradually dip their fingers into the sandbox and only after they understand that it is not dangerous do they begin to create.

When playing with sand, a child may prefer dry or wet material. It happens that children pour a lot of water, turning the sand into a liquid substance, and arrange hide-and-seek in it: they bury and dig up small objects. In the process, they try to feel important and valuable to the adult mentor.

Sand therapy classes in preschool institutions make it possible to free up the baby’s internal space for his personality. This is why it is so important to give him freedom of choice at the very beginning of the session. He must be allowed to break the negative projection of the family and become an independent creator of his life.

How does sand therapy work?

The main effect of sand therapy is that it helps fight psychological trauma by transferring it to the sand. Feelings of control and interconnection over one’s internal sensations and desires begin to form. A child, playing in the sand, expresses all his experiences and fears, frees himself from traumas that do not develop into psychological trauma.

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Integrated speech development lesson for children 5-6 years old using eidetic elements

Sand therapy session.

In preschool age, this method is widely used by speech therapists and psychologists, taking into account the final goal and personality characteristics of the child, the specialist determines the goals of the classes and the exercises necessary to achieve it. Classes can be conducted both for a group and separately for each preschooler.

Many experts note a positive effect after the first session. Children can open up and establish close contact with a psychologist who, by interpreting what is happening, can reveal their deepest experiences. Very often these are unconscious experiences that could not be recognized before. The main goal of psychological influence is to realize and work through your problems, find solutions and a way out of the situation.

Sand therapy in child development

Thanks to sand therapy, you can develop the following skills in your child:

Motor. The child learns to pour sand into a bucket, jar or bottle with a narrow neck.
Descriptive. Preschoolers draw animals, plants, equipment, etc. in the sand.
Develop speech functions and phonemic hearing. Children draw letters in the sand, which helps teach them how to pronounce and automate sounds.
Development of mental abilities, memory and attention.
Development of fine motor skills of the hands. Every finger is involved in the game, which will have a beneficial effect on the overall development of the child.
To correct breathing. Sand acts as a means for breathing exercises.

Playing in the sandbox helps the child perform actions with sand: dry and wet. He learns its properties and learns to establish a cause-and-effect relationship. In the process, creative abilities also develop - the child comes up with new images and makes them out of sand.

Article:

“Only hands know how to unravel what the mind struggles in vain” Carl Gustav Jung
Sand therapy (sand therapy) is a type of modern art therapy and art pedagogy, including a system of games with sand that allow you to reveal the individuality of each child and solve it psychological difficulties, develop the ability to realize your desires and the possibility of their realization.

Sand therapy is a way of communicating with the world and oneself; a way to relieve internal tension, embody it on an unconscious-symbolic level, which increases self-confidence and opens up new paths of development.

Sand therapy is one of the art treatment methods, which is based on Jung’s theory that “every object in the external world evokes some symbol in the depths of the unconscious.”

This method combines many exercises and games aimed at general relaxation, removing motor stereotypes and convulsive movements, and increasing concentration and perseverance.

The sandbox is an excellent mediator for establishing contact with a child. And if he speaks poorly and cannot tell an adult about his experiences, then in such games with sand everything becomes possible. By playing out an exciting situation with the help of small figures, creating a picture of sand, the child opens up, and adults get the opportunity to see the child’s inner world at the moment, and during sand therapy it will definitely “flow out” onto the sandy surface.

Sand therapy for a child is an opportunity for self-expression. Water, sand, figures of animals and people, objects can help the baby open up, express emotions and feelings that are sometimes difficult to convey in words.

Sand therapy can help a child understand himself and get rid of internal complexes. At the same time, sand therapy sessions give a feeling of complete freedom and security. Sand therapy is essentially a game. A game that helps a child learn to build relationships with peers and the outside world, express his emotions and feelings. Sand therapy is a game with symbols that help to hear the inner real “I”, which suggests a way out to solve the problem. When creating sand compositions, no special skills are needed. Therefore, the child will not be afraid to make a mistake or inaccuracy, and will act more relaxed and bold.

This is an unusual technique, thanks to which the child builds his own world in miniature from sand and small figures. He enjoys using miniature figures of people, animals, trees, buildings, cars, bridges. While playing, the child can mix sand with water, form hills, mountains, and create wet landscapes. At the same time, the baby expresses in the sand what spontaneously arises in his mind.

Thus, sand therapy (sand-play) is playing with sand as a way of child development.

HISTORY OF SAND THERAPY

The beginning of the use of a tray with sand in psychological practice is considered to be the late 1920s.

It is believed that the origin of “sand therapy” is the book of the famous science fiction writer H. Wells “Floor Games” (1911). It describes how his sons, by playing with small figures, found expression and relief for difficulties in their relationships with family members and with each other. This book inspired child psychiatrist Margaret Lowenfeld, who founded the London Institute of Child Psychology, to put miniature figurines on the shelves of her office. The first child who saw these figures took them to the sandbox nearby and began to play with them in the sand.

This is what gave rise to the “worldbuilding technique,” a diagnostic and therapeutic technique developed and described in detail by Margaret Lowenfeld. The idea of using sand in play with sick and psychologically disadvantaged children was realized by Margaret Lowenfeld in the 1930s.

In the 1950s, Jungian psychoanalyst Dora Kalff, having studied the “world-building” technique, began to develop Jungian “Sandplay Therapy”. (Boston: Sigo Press, 1980). The book describes cases from practice), which later became an independent direction in psychotherapy. D. Kalff first used sand therapy with children, and then with adults. D. Kalff based her approach to sand therapy on the theory of K.G. Cabin boy. Having studied with M. Lowenfeld, she saw in this technique not only an opportunity to help children express and respond to the feelings that burden them, but also a way to strengthen the connection with the deep unconscious layers of the psyche and help the process of individualization and the development of the transcendental function, which she studied with K.G. . Cabin boy. She believed that “A sand painting can be understood as a three-dimensional representation of some aspect of a mental state. An unconscious problem plays out in a sandbox, like a drama, the conflict is transferred from the internal world to the external world and becomes visible.”

When working with children, toys and miniatures were used by Anna Freud, Erik Erikson and other psychotherapists.

In Sweden, Charlotte Bühler developed the "peace test", which is still used in Sweden as a diagnostic tool in child psychiatry.

The active imagination technique developed by C. Jung can be considered as the theoretical basis of sand therapy. Creating sand paintings promotes creative regression; working in the sandbox returns a person to childhood and helps activate the “child archetype”.

Sand therapy in the context of art therapy is a non-verbal form of psychocorrection, where the main emphasis is on the client’s creative self-expression.

These images appear in symbolic form in the process of creating a creative product - a composition of figurines, structures on a tray with sand.

The method is based on a combination of non-verbal (the process of constructing a composition) and verbal expression of clients (a story about the finished composition, writing a story or fairy tale that reveals the meaning of the composition). Sand therapy is used both when working with children and when working with adults.

Today, the sand therapy method is used in art therapy, gestalt therapy, cognitive behavioral and family therapy, and in child psychoanalysis.

Sand therapy is a complement to other types of therapy: visualization, psychodrama, body and movement work, hypnosis, etc.

Jungian sand therapy involves the use of a standard-sized tray of sand and a large number of miniature objects.

The difference between the art therapeutic practice of working with a sandbox and the traditional version of Jungian sand therapy “also lies in the possibility of using focusing techniques associated with working on topics chosen by the client. They may be related to a customer request or current problem.”

A significant difference from the traditional version of Jungian sand therapy is the use of interactive games and exercises.

The use of focusing techniques associated with sand therapy on a specific topic is often due to the client’s uncertainty and increased anxiety. In short-term therapy settings, the therapist may sometimes use a thematic approach.

The benefits of sand therapy for children

The advantages of working with sand are undeniable:

Fine motor skills develop in preschool children.
Extensive scope for imagination and mental activity.
The thinking mechanism is regulated.

In speech therapy classes, doing exercises with sand helps:

express your thoughts logically;
formation of dialogical speech of preschoolers;
bear responsibility for your actions in the game;
rely only on your own strength;
erase psychological traumas and problems from your head.

Actions of the teacher when organizing sand therapy

When organizing sand therapy, the teacher should:

prepare a place for sand therapy. This should be a quiet corner where there is no noise and fuss;
purchase a box that needs to be painted blue or light blue. This coloring has a beneficial effect and calms the psyche. Pure white sand is poured into it;
A box of toys is placed near the box. They should be small in size so that the child can create a model of the game. The set must include figures of people and animals;

Note! During sand therapy, the child chooses exactly those figures that symbolize his internal state at the moment.

create comfortable conditions for gaming activities;
support children's play, help them experience various situations;
evaluate children's behavior during play and draw conclusions.

To practice sand animation you need:

Buy a table with a glass top and add lighting from below. Install low edges along the edge of the table.
Pour clean river sand onto the surface in such quantity that you can draw pictures on it.

During therapy sessions there should be a calm environment conducive to therapy. You can turn on calm music. The teacher observes the progress of the game and, if necessary, prompts the child with a scenario.

Why a psychologist?

The method of depicting with sand is used in their work by presenters of various master classes, additional education teachers, and social workers. What benefits do clients who undergo sand therapy with a psychologist receive?

The psychologist has a professional analytical apparatus for diagnosing the client’s condition. In other words, he is able to help identify the roots of the problem, being responsible for the result. The work will also take into account the specifics of the situation in which the person finds himself. Negative symptoms will not escape the attention of a specialist. And the environment created in the classroom will promote self-disclosure.

Sand therapy for preschool children

For babies, this therapy is a fun way to touch soft-touch material. It helps children develop mentally and physically, giving them the opportunity to prepare for school.

For children, playing in the sand helps:

learn numbers and letters;
distinguish between left and right sides;
correctly navigate the seasons;
train memory, vision and hearing;
develop imagination.

It is better to start such therapy at the age of 3, but it can be done earlier, when the child stops putting everything in his mouth.

Features of sand therapy for children

Sand therapy is also suitable for adults, but the use of sand therapy has its own characteristics in games:

Does the teacher understand the child’s psychological problem?
It is important to set communication boundaries with children.
A more natural game, which is unusual for adults.
Children are engaged in more dynamic and active games.
The main stages of the game: chaos, struggle, outcome.
Complete absence of abstract paintings.
The preferred predominance of fairy-tale characters, animals, and cartoon characters in the game.

Indications for therapy

Sand exercises are recommended at any age, especially for children with psychological trauma and developmental delays. A child who has difficulty expressing his feelings and experiences will only benefit from such activities. In addition, therapy helps preschoolers develop intelligence and prepare for school.

Contraindications

The main contraindication to sand therapy is the child’s lack of trust in his teacher. As well as increased anxiety, excitability and resistance to sand play.

Sometimes a contraindication is an allergy to materials in a child.

Game techniques

Basic game techniques:

“Guess” - bury the figurine in the sand and ask the child to guess who exactly was hidden in the sand. To make the task easier, ask leading questions.
“Fun” is to come up with an interesting story for the characters and lay out the main guiding words on the sand with figures, after which the child turns away, and the adult scatters the figures on the sand. The kid must find the lost words.
“The Lost City” – let the renter build the city of his dreams and create a story for its inhabitants.

What is needed for sand therapy at home?

To practice at home you will need:

clean sand;
rectangular box;
miniature figures.

Pour sand into the box two-thirds full; you also need to have water to wet the sand.

Games to develop auditory attention and memory

This type of therapy includes many games aimed at developing memory, hearing and speech. Let's consider the main ones:

“Tic-tac-toe” - this is how the baby trains his memory and develops his intellect.
“Animals” - put animals in a row and ask the child to name them and write each letter in the sand.
“Geography” - you need to buy a map of the world and resolve it into 6 parts, then let the child put it together like a puzzle. At the same time, he can pronounce the names of continents and oceans. Then build a city with rivers, mountains and houses on the sand to develop spatial thinking and memory.

Sand therapy as an innovative method in the work of teachers with preschoolers

“A sand painting can be understood as a three-dimensional representation of some aspect of a mental state. An unconscious problem plays out in a sandbox, like a drama, the conflict is transferred from the internal world to the external world and becomes visible.” D. Kallf

All of us, adults and children, took sand in our hands.
They look like small grains, nothing special, but for some reason you want to do something with it: build castles out of wet sand, make Easter cakes using molds, and it’s just nice to pour it through your fingers. However, sand is not so simple. Seemingly simple games can be very beneficial for the mental health and development of children. Especially if these games are sand therapy. What is sand therapy? Sand therapy is one of the art treatment methods, which is based on Jung’s theory that “every object in the external world evokes some symbol in the depths of the unconscious.” According to diagnostic results, recently the number of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has increased, the correction of which uses various methods, one of which is sand therapy. This method combines many exercises and games aimed at general relaxation, removing motor stereotypes and convulsive movements, and increasing concentration and perseverance. Signs of hyperactivity begin to appear at the age of 2-3 years. However, parents and educators, as a rule, attribute deviations in the child’s behavior to his individual characteristics and do not turn to a doctor or other specialist, hoping to cope with the problem on their own, but as time goes on, the problem becomes more and more serious. Therefore, it is important to diagnose attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as early as possible. But the proposed methods are designed for older children. Therefore, psychologists in preschool institutions are increasingly using sand therapy. Sand therapy can help the teacher consider the condition of three- to four-year-old children who behave hyperactively, not as a diagnosis requiring drug treatment, but as a possible psychodynamic factor that needs to be corrected. It gives the child time to work through their emotional issues and removes a block in the learning process. The sandbox is an excellent mediator for establishing contact with a child. And if he speaks poorly and cannot tell an adult about his experiences, then in such games with sand everything becomes possible. By playing out an exciting situation with the help of small figures, creating a picture of sand, the child opens up, and adults get the opportunity to see the child’s inner world at the moment, and during sand therapy it will definitely “flow out” onto the sandy surface. At the beginning of the stage, classes were held individually, and I mainly commented on the children’s sand paintings, but gradually the children themselves began to talk about their actions in the sandbox, and they wanted to play in it longer and longer. Then, I began to take a subgroup, and we began to play games suggested by me, and then games invented by the children themselves. What are the benefits of playing with sand? Develop perception, thinking, memory, attention, speech, self-control and self-regulation skills, creative thinking, imagination and fantasy;
Form the child’s ideas about the world around him;
Develop fine motor skills, eye control; Calm and relax, relieving tension; They foster a sense of success and self-confidence (that’s how I can do it!) They help to understand the outer and inner world. Playing with sand is a kind of self-therapy for a child with the help of a psychologist. The child is the master in the sandbox and, experiencing this feeling, he becomes internally stronger because he can change his pictures, stories, relationships and moods. In games on the sand there are wars, a struggle between good and evil, but the child always knows that good will win! And this experience is very important for his future life. Games with hyperactive children are all calm, requiring a lot of endurance and patience: for example, the game “Don’t Touch” (the child buries his hand so that it is not clear where his fingers are. Another child begins to slowly rake this sand, trying not to touch his fingers. The winner is the one who found the most fingers without touching it. Photo No. 1), or “Stretch it further” (you need to stretch the button as far as possible until it all appears. Photo No. 2, No. 3) The effect of sand therapy: positive impact on the emotional state of children; positive dynamics in the development of: imaginative thinking; tactile sensitivity; hand-eye coordination; orientation in space; sensorimotor perception. REFERENCES Belousova, E.D. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder / E.D. Belousova, M.Yu. Nikanorova // Russian Bulletin of Perinatology and Pediatrics. Scientific and practical peer-reviewed journal. – 2000. – No. 3. – P. 39 – 42. Bryazgunov, I.P. Attention deficit with hyperactivity in children / I.P. Bryazgunov, E.V. Kasatikova. – M.: Medpraktika-M., 2002. P. 38–39, 48–53. Zinkevich-Evstegneeva, T.D., Grabenko, T.N. Miracles on the sand. Workshop on sand therapy / T.D. Zinkevich-Evstegneeva, T.N. Grabenko. – St. Petersburg. : Speech, 2010. – 340 p.

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Projective games with sand, exercises for emotional release and relieving aggression

Let's look at some games to relieve anxiety and develop personality:

“Hand impressions” - this is how a child learns to evaluate his sensations. The baby must describe how he feels and express his emotions.
“Rain” - this game helps your child relieve stress. The child pours sand from one hand onto the back of the other hand.
“Patterns” - the child must draw various images in the sand and tell how he feels about it. This activity is an ideal stress reliever.
“Hide and seek” – relieves stress and allows you to find out the psychological problems of the child. Children are given a choice of toys that he hides, then dig them up and talk about their emotions.

Projective games

The peculiarity identified by S. Freud of attributing one's feelings and desires to external objects is very helpful in working with children. The child is asked to do the following:

describe the existing images in the sand and endow them with some qualities;
create a single whole from disparate parts hidden in the sand;
come up with a story or fairy tale with characters and objects from existing figures in the sand;
draw a non-existent animal, and others.

It must be remembered that projective techniques cannot be unambiguously interpreted; they are socially and situationally determined and are aimed at studying the child’s personality as a whole. Given that these techniques are not sufficiently standardized, they are used for diagnosis and treatment by psychotherapists.

Sand therapy includes a wide variety of individual and group games and activities. Illuminated boards or sand of various colors are actively used. This will help the child express his existing emotional state.

A series of games and exercises with sand from the book

T. Zinkevich - Evstigneeva “Miracles on the Sand” contribute to the development of tactile-kinesthetic sensitivity, fine motor skills, creative imagination, and help in understanding one’s external and internal world.

Here are some games:

Hand impressions. With the help of this exercise
, the baby learns to evaluate sensations. The teacher or parent shows the student a print of his or her palm
on the sand, the patient repeats the same. The hand is pressed and plunged into the pan.

First, the presenter describes his feelings. He tells his story about sand, what kind of material it is, soft or rough, how he feels small particles with his skin. Then follows the child's story about sand.

Rain or waterfall. This game is a good way to relieve muscle tension and aggression. The teacher or presenter says that the waterfall has begun. The little person pours sand onto the back of the adult's hand, and then he performs the exercise for the baby.

Creating patterns. Draw various patterns on the sand using fingers, fists, and brushes, and then tell what the child sees when he looks at them. This can include flowers, animals, branches, etc. This exercise has a positive effect on the psycho-emotional
state of children.
Hide and seek. The game helps in clarifying the psychological problems of the ward and helping to get rid of them. The preschooler is offered a choice of several objects, which he must bury in the sand, and then dig up and tell about all the hidden objects.
Playing the plot. The psychologist invites the patient to create his own world using a choice of miniature figures. If the goal of
sand therapy is to get rid of aggression, then the little person will choose negative characters and cause war and destruction, thereby relieving tension and calming his anger.

The role of sand therapy for children with disabilities

For healthy children, such games are simply useful and entertaining. The situation is different with children with developmental disabilities. Sand exercises are used to correct behavior, relieve tension and develop sensory skills.

Games in the sandbox are effective for kids with:

ZPR;
HIA;
ONR.

Such children form their own character in the sandbox; the characters communicate with each other and carry on a conversation. This is how kids with developmental disabilities form their own character.

The sand literacy game is suitable for children with speech delays. It improves the correct perception of words, forms correct pronunciation, develops reading and writing.

Children with intellectual deficiencies should play with sand for about an hour.

This therapy treats neurological problems and is an active prevention of developmental disorders. Frequent play in the sandbox charges the child with positive emotions and frees him from negative manifestations of the outside world.

What are the different ways to interact with sand?

You can play sand in different ways, from independent games alone to group classes with a teacher or psychologist. Let’s say right away that all these methods have their advantages, including the child’s independent play alone or with peers, but if we can imagine children playing in the sandbox or on the beach, what happens behind the door of a sand therapy specialist or art therapy, not everyone knows.

In psychological and pedagogical practice, two ways of working with sand can be distinguished: art therapy and sand therapy. They have a lot in common, some experts use both methods, but here we will cover each separately.

Art therapy using sand

“Art washes away the dust of everyday life from the soul” - this quote from the great master Pablo Picasso can become the slogan of all art therapy. The essence of the method is to express your thoughts and experiences using art, in our case sand drawing on a special tablet. During art therapy, a psychologist helps a child name and experience disturbing feelings and events, suggesting themes for work and discussing the paintings created.

Art therapy is considered one of the most effective areas of working with young children, since they are still closer to non-verbal images. During art therapy, children do not need to use complex words and phrases to describe their condition, and creativity itself is an understandable and familiar activity for them. The use of sand allows you to create paintings even without special skills (unlike, for example, painting or appliqué), and it is also easy to make changes to the finished work at any time.

Today, group and individual art therapy is used both to solve a wide range of problems (for example, anxiety, traumatic experiences, behavioral disorders and developmental delays) and to organize developmental activities for children (developing imagination, improving communication skills, developing fine motor skills and broadening one's horizons).

Sand therapy

Sand therapy has its roots in the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, which emphasized the role of symbols and unconscious processes in our lives. Carl Gustav Jung and his followers are convinced that the use of figurative language allows us to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, regardless of age, and contact with sand facilitates the release of the contents of the unconscious part of our psyche.

In sand therapy, in addition to sand, small figures of objects, animals and people are used, which allow you to create stories and fill them with personal meaning. In the process of constructing a plot and telling a story about it, the child reveals his experiences to the therapist, and the therapist helps the child overcome life’s difficulties and helps to establish contact in the family. Usually, the child perceives the process of sand therapy as an exciting game with figurines, so he is not afraid of meetings with a psychologist.

Sand therapy is widely used by child psychotherapists when working with children with behavioral and emotional disorders (shyness, tearfulness, aggressiveness, anxiety), who have experienced negative experiences or are going through a period of adaptation to new conditions (for example, moving to another city or parental divorce), as well as for the development of the cognitive, emotional and communicative sphere of children.

Sand is widely used by psychologists and teachers in working with preschoolers. Sand exercises help you get rid of behavioral and emotional problems and help you get through difficult periods. Many programs are also used for the development of children: group and individual classes for preschoolers contribute to the development of cognitive, emotional and communication areas.

Examples of games in the sandbox and comments from teachers can be seen in the report below:

Stages of sand therapy

There are three main stages of sand play:

“Chaos” - there are no differences between the figures, that is, it is not clear who they are: animals, heroes, plants, fairy-tale characters. This means that the baby is anxious and restless.
“Struggle” - the child clearly divides toys into good and bad, and there are many more evil ones. This period is called the child’s internal struggle; in this case, good characters should be added to his game’s plot.
“Exodus” is the stage that means complete calm and harmony of the child.

Sand therapy fully develops the child and eliminates neurological problems. It is also just a pleasant and useful time spent with your own child.

Types of sand games

There are 2 main types of sand games:

Sand painting. This type of therapy helps the child relax. He fantasizes, drawing various images: people, animals or nature. The sand can be leveled with both palms and fingers, or drawn with a fist or wrist. You can make holes, rake it, or sift it between your fingers. Sand animation helps develop creativity, thinking and imagination. This type of sand therapy is especially suitable for excitable and hyperactive children.
Sandbox game. A child plays in an improvised sandbox - a box with sand. He uses figures of people, buildings, equipment, fruits, vegetables and other objects. The preschooler independently comes up with a plot and plays it out, expressing hidden emotions. When a psychologist organizes therapy, he himself suggests a plot so that the child experiences a specific feeling. To develop speech, the speech therapist conducts the necessary classes in a playful way.

Sand therapy includes a variety of story-based games that help children develop.

Sand therapy lesson program “Sand fantasies”

Sand therapy training program

"Sand Fantasies"

For children aged 6-14 years with various forms of behavioral disorders

Developers:

Chentsova Alexandra Yurievna

Volodarsk 2020

I. Explanatory note

Sand is a mysterious material. It has the ability to fascinate a person with its malleability, the ability to take any form, to be dry and light, or elusive and wet, or dense and plastic.

Playing with sand as a way of child development and self-therapy has been known since ancient times. The malleability of sand awakens the desire to create a miniature picture of the world from it. A person acts in the sandbox as a creator - one life story changes another, following the laws of existence: everything comes and everything goes, there is nothing that is irreparably destroyed, just the old turns into something different, new. By repeatedly experiencing this sensation, a person achieves a state of mental balance.

Playing with sand is a natural and accessible form of activity for every child. A child, especially one with special developmental needs, often cannot express his feelings and fears in words, and here games with sand come to his aid. By acting out the situations that agitated him with the help of toy figures, creating a picture of his own world from sand, the child is freed from tension. And most importantly, he gains invaluable experience in symbolically resolving many life situations, because in a real fairy tale everything ends well!

The big advantage of sand painting is the unique properties of sand - flowability, softness, pleasant roughness - which have a fascinating effect on a person. When painting with sand, a person enters a light meditative state, which gives him the opportunity to truly relax and unwind. This type of art is suitable for all age categories. Children especially love to play with sand.

Sand often acts like a magnet on children. Their hands themselves, unconsciously, begin to pour and sift sand, build tunnels, mountains, and dig holes. And if you add various toys to this, then the child has his own world, where he invents and fantasizes, and, at the same time, learns to work and achieve goals.

One way or another, observations and experience show that playing with sand has a positive effect on the emotional well-being of children and adults; this makes it an excellent means of “care for the soul,” which is how the term “psychotherapy” is translated.

Wet sand allows you to sculpt grandiose figures without small details, but very expressive in silhouette. You can make not only palaces from sand, but also cars, ships, various figures - sculptures, decorating them with pebbles, shells, and colored beads.

Characteristics of the institution

One of the links in the state system for the prevention of neglect and delinquency and the social rehabilitation of “at-risk” children are centers for the social rehabilitation of minors.

GBU NO “Center for Social Assistance to Children and Families of the Volodarsky District” is an institution whose activities are aimed at organizing social rehabilitation and health improvement of minors aged 6 to 18 years in need of social assistance.

The day care department (DCU) is a structural unit of the institution and provides social services to children in difficult life situations (DLS) and socially dangerous situations (SOP).

The department was created to implement social rehabilitation programs that contribute to the formation of an individual who is adequately oriented in society.

Disabled children, children from families in HOAs: large families, low-income families, single-parent families, and also those in a special needs community have the right to services.

An analysis of the social development situation of children in the center shows that most of them end up in the institution due to family problems. Various factors negatively affect the socialization of children: the lifestyle of parents, the low material level of the family, the existing conflictual relationships within the family and, in connection with this, an unfavorable psychological climate in the family, the widespread prevalence of “bad habits” among teenagers.

Solving the problem of moral education of children attending the center is quite difficult due to the fact that they, as a rule, did not receive a normal family upbringing, “their universities” took place on the street, and do not have clear moral criteria. Many of our students have seen so little good in life, but they have seen a lot of injustice, deception, their horizons are immensely narrow, their vocabulary is poor, they are bitter and aggressive. Children's mastery of norms of moral behavior and moral relations is impossible if there are no situations in life in which such experience can be accumulated.

The model for organizing psychological and pedagogical work in an institution is built on the principle of psychological and pedagogical support. Psychological rehabilitation allows the student to successfully adapt to the environment and society as a whole. It helps him achieve the necessary moral and psychological balance, accept and fulfill appropriate social roles.

The most important means of prevention and pedagogical correction of illegal behavior is the education of tolerant behavior of minors, which includes the study of constructive ways of communication.

Today, the most justified approach to organizing rehabilitation work is one that is aimed at each student developing his own version of life, worthy of him as a person in modern society.

II . Conceptual part

The institution creates conditions for restoring normal relationships between children and others, which is an important indicator of rehabilitation and pedagogical work.

The “Sand Fantasies” program is aimed at the overall development of the child, including the possibility of developing the emotional and volitional sphere, which are poorly developed in children attending preschool education, and contains tasks for creative activities using dry and wet sand.

Relevance

The “Sand Fantasies” program provides an opportunity to provide an individual approach to each child. The problem of the development of a child’s personality is currently one of the most pressing problems, because we are talking about the most important condition for the formation of an individual’s uniqueness already in the first stages of its formation. Playing and drawing are special forms of children's activities. Children's interest in them significantly depends on the extent to which the conditions and organization of work allow them to satisfy the basic needs of the child, namely:

the desire to practically act with objects, which is no longer satisfied by simply manipulating them, as was the case at an early age, but involves obtaining a certain meaningful result;
the desire to feel capable of making something that can be used and that can attract the approval of others.

For many people, putting thoughts into words is difficult, especially for children.

But there is still a language of facial expressions and gestures that can subtly express sensations or feelings in a drawing, in plasticine, the hand, as it were, builds bridges between the inner and outer worlds. Then the inner image becomes visible in the outer creation. This principle forms the basis of the sand therapy system. As you know, children enjoy playing in the sand, because such games are full of different emotions: delight, surprise, excitement, joy. This makes it possible to use sand games for development, enrichment of the child’s emotional experience, and for the prevention and correction of his mental states. Sand allows water to pass through, therefore, according to parapsychologists, it also absorbs a person’s negative energy and stabilizes his emotional state. Working on the “Sand Fantasies” program is an excellent means of developing children’s creativity, mental abilities, aesthetic taste, and design thinking.

Novelty and distinctiveness

The “Sand Fantasies” program is to develop in children creative and exploratory thinking, spatial concepts, some physical patterns, knowledge of the properties of various materials, mastery of various methods of practical actions, acquisition of manual skills and the emergence of a creative attitude towards the environment.

Necessity

in the creation of this program exists, since sand therapy is considered as a multifaceted process associated with the development of children and adolescents' creative abilities, imagination, fine motor skills, attention, logical thinking and perseverance.

III.Goals and objectives of the program

Purpose of the program:

1) Give the child the opportunity to be himself, reveal the individuality of each child, and ensure social success.

2) Development of coherent speech; assistance in learning letters, mastering reading and writing skills; development of graphomotor skills.

Program objectives:

Promote the development of the child's communication skills through joint play activities.
To develop tactile sensitivity as the basis for the emancipation of children’s consciousness.
To develop the child’s interest in experimental activities and his curiosity.
Prevention of optical-spatial dysgraphia;
Develop all cognitive functions (perception, attention, memory, thinking, imagination), fine motor skills;
Develop visual-spatial orientation;
Improve object-based play activities that contribute to the development of role-playing games and the child’s communication skills;
Resolving the child’s psychological difficulties, stabilizing the emotional state;
Create a sense of security in an environment that is comfortable for the child;
Relaxation, relieving muscle tension.
Develop tactile sensitivity as the basis of “manual intelligence”.

IV. Mechanism for program implementation

Terms of sale
Classroom - psychologist's office with carpeted flooring
Equipment
.
Studio drawing tablet
.
A rectangular wooden tray measuring 49.5 x 5 x 7 cm. These dimensions are extremely important because they allow the child to keep the entire composition in sight, and not individual fragments. quartz sand
. The sand occupies approximately one third of the volume of the box; it should be clean, sifted, not large, but not too small and, preferably, light enough. It is important that it is pleasant to the touch. The work uses both dry and wet sand. To do this, you need to have a container of water.

Organizational and methodological aspects

Presentation of the possibility of carrying out rehabilitation work in a sensory room equipped with special equipment (meeting with teachers and creating motivation for joint work).
Collection of anamnestic data, psychological diagnostics in order to clarify the traumatic event and identify the current level of development of the cognitive sphere, characteristics of the child’s emotional-volitional sphere and his zone of proximal development.
The program is designed for 5-7 lessons with frequency of meetings twice a week for 1 hour. It is advisable to involve a teacher or psychologist who will provide support to the child between classes and also eliminate traumatic factors.

Quantitative composition of groups
The optimal number of participants is 7 people, including adults.
Qualitative composition of the group
Children and teenagers in the center. Children who have no contraindications for group work are selected for the group.
Contraindications
Sand therapy should not be used in the following cases: - Epilepsy or schizophrenia - Client with very high levels of anxiety - Allergies to dust and small particles - Pulmonary diseases - Skin diseases and cuts on the hands
Principles of organizing sand therapy

The principle of creativity

, creating a natural, stimulating environment in which the child feels comfortable and protected while being creative.

The principle of a differentiated and individual approach

, taking into account the age characteristics of the child.

The principle of humanization

involves building the educational process and educational relationships, focusing on the child’s personality.

The principle of reflexivity

means the child’s readiness and ability to creatively comprehend and overcome problem-conflict situations; the ability to acquire new meanings and values, adapt to unusual interpersonal systems of relationships, pose and solve extraordinary practical problems.

Integrative principle

involves a harmonious combination of all types and forms of organization of various artistic activities. The child’s experience consists of visual, auditory and kinesthetic sensations (modalities).

Indicative structure of classes
Part 1. Introductory.
The goal is to encourage children to work together and establish emotional contact between children. Basic procedures: greeting ritual, warm-up games.

Part 2. Main

. This part accounts for the main semantic load of the entire lesson. It includes exercises and games aimed at developing the emotional, personal and cognitive spheres of the child.

Basic procedures: sand therapy, games and exercises to develop thinking, attention, memory, games to develop communication skills, drawing, creative work.

Part 3. Final.

Main goals: summing up the lesson, creating in each participant a sense of belonging to the group and consolidating positive emotions from working in the lesson, talking about what happened in the lesson.

Methods and techniques of work

Visual

(sample showing, example, help).

Verbal

(explanation, description, encouragement, persuasion, use of tongue twisters, proverbs and sayings).

Practical

(independent and joint execution of images)

Sand painting methods

The teacher invites the children to embody their ideas in the sand in the ways that they like best.

 Sand can be leveled using both palms and fingers.

 Hands can also work like a “bulldozer”, raking sand around.

 You can use your fingers to make holes in the sand or draw on it.

 You can use your fist or your index finger to make pictures.

 You can use your hand to depict a wave in a drawing.

 Master a new way of drawing with sand by cutting off the excess.

V. Expected results

Expected results of the program:

– ability to master various techniques of working with dry sand;

– the ability to create compositions and plots in the sand;

– sustained attention, memory, thinking, spatial imagination;

— development of fine motor skills of the hands and eye;

— artistic taste, creativity and imagination;

– improving communication skills and acquiring teamwork skills;

— participation in various types of gaming, visual, creative activities; expanding your horizons and vocabulary.

VI . Thematic planning

Title of the lesson

Goals, objectives

Practical activities

Hello sand!

Introducing children to sand and its properties; improving coordination of movements, fine motor skills, spatial orientation;

Sand rain

(slowly or quickly pour sand from your fist, onto your palm or an adult, you can close your eyes).
Unusual tracks
(bears - press with your fists, hares - with your fingertips in different directions, snakes crawl, spider bugs run, crocoons - children create the tracks themselves).
Patterns in the sand
(with fingers, the edge of the palm, a fist) An adult draws various geometric shapes (in accordance with age standards for development), simple/complex patterns (straight and wavy paths, fences, stairs). The child must draw the same pattern below in the sand, or continue the adult’s pattern. Option: an adult draws on a board and gives verbal instructions to draw a specific pattern in the sand.

Sensitive hands

Develop fine motor skills of the hands, form an idea of the variability of the shape of sand

Find the difference.

The child draws any simple picture on the surface of the sand, then shows it to an adult, while he turns away.
The adult completes some details and shows the resulting image to the child. The child should notice what has changed in the picture. An adult and a child can change roles during the game. Magic transformations.
It is no less interesting to combine several types of colored sand and at the same time get amazing combinations that are actively included in the game in the form of unusual images.

sun rays

Developing children's cohesion, fine motor skills, awakening interest, stimulating attention;

Colored Islands (group).

Children are invited to take sand of any color and use it to create islands on the table surface; in addition, they can use miniature figures.
The children then travel to each other's islands, talking about them. Letters.
Are we learning letters? And kinetic sand will help you. It is easy and simple to model with, so be sure to practice. It is very exciting to sculpt letters and practice variations of their pronunciation.

Patterns in the sand

Teach children to draw their mood in the sand, develop imagination

Snake.

Goal: relieve emotional stress. Task: express your attitude by showing it in the game. Instructions: take the Snake by the head or tail and move it along the sand. Now take the rope like a pen and smoothly follow the snake's trail. The child takes Snake by the head and writes patterns: circles, loops, sticks.

Rainbow

Consolidating ideas about the world around us; development of hand motor skills, fine tactile sensations; development of speech, memory, thinking.

Period, period, comma.

Goal: familiarization with technical techniques and methods of imaging with

using sand. Period, period, comma - a crooked face came out. Hands, legs, cucumber - it turned out to be a little man.

Read the poem and draw a funny man in the sand..

Guess by touch.

This exercise is aimed at developing the child’s thinking and motor skills. The kid turns away, and the adult at this time hides a toy/stone/pine cone/shell in the sand... The child’s task is to find an object in the sand and guess by touch what it is. Then the participants in the game change roles

World made of sand

“Playing out” various life situations, creating compositions in the sand.

We create the world.

Goal: development and expansion of the child’s ideas about the world of living and inanimate nature around him, about the man-made world of man. The teacher shows ways to build living and non-living communities in the sandbox - a city, a village, a forest, a river, a lake, an island, and then in a playful way encourages the child to build various natural and man-made communities independently and according to instructions. (the topic of constructions may correspond to the topic of classes)

Eyes to eyes

Learning to build a composition on the sand according to a model; development of attention associated with coordination of movements

We are going to visit

. Goal: development of spatial concepts, orientation on the “sand sheet”; For children, the instructions are greatly simplified; only the reinforcement of sensory standards and “top-bottom” ideas is carried out. An adult, in a playful way, introduces the child to spatial concepts (or consolidates knowledge): “top - bottom”, “right - left”, “above - below”, “from behind - from under”, “center, corner”. The child, according to the adult’s verbal instructions, “walks, jumps, crawls” on the sand with his fingers, depicting various characters. Sand fairy. We are going to visit the bunny. Where does the hare live? (The hare lives in the forest because it is a wild animal.) In which corner of the sandbox does the forest grow? (Kids answer “at the top of the sandbox.”) Who lives next to the bunny? (Figures or pictures of wild animals are listed and placed in the sandbox.) Who is the bunny’s friends? Who is the bunny afraid of? What did the hare treat us with? What do we wish for the bunny?

VII. Bibliography

Betenski Mala. What do you see? New methods of art therapy. – M.: Eksmo-Press, 2002
Grabenko T.M., Zinkevich-Evstigneeva T.D. Miracles on the sand. Sand play therapy. – St. Petersburg: Institute of Special Pedagogy and Psychology, 1998, – 50 p.
Grabenko T.M. , Zinkevich-Evstigneeva T.D. Workshop on sand therapy, St. Petersburg, “Rech”, 2002.
Seitz M. We write and draw on the sand. Practical recommendations. – M., 2010.
El G. Man playing in the sand. Dynamic sand therapy. – St. Petersburg, “Rech”, 2007.

Sand therapy methods in speech development

Speech disorders often occur in preschool children. Sand therapy is an effective tool for children's speech development. This method is novel and increasingly gaining popularity.

A speech therapist uses sand games in classes with children:

"Sounds on the Sand"

The teacher draws an animal or object in the sand and asks the child its name. Then he asks to draw other objects whose names begin with the first sound of the word. Thanks to this game, the speech therapist helps the child automate a specific sound.

"Remove the unnecessary"

The teacher draws 3 objects, one of them does not fit the logical chain. For example, circle, square and apple. The child must erase the excess and add the necessary drawing. Sand play promotes speech development.

"Turn the letter"

The teacher draws a letter, the child must turn it into another.

“Draw a letter, a word”

The preschooler draws with his finger the letters or words that the teacher pronounces. In the game you can use sticks or string with knots to write.

Important! The speech therapist will select sand therapy individually for each child, which is necessary for him to produce sound and automate it.

Who is suitable for sand therapy?

Using this method can be useful for every child, even if he does not have personality disorders, as a method of developing skills and abilities. But there are cases when the use of sand animation for preschoolers is especially recommended:

• If you have fears or severe anxiety;

• With mental retardation;

• With diagnosed neurosis, nervous tics;

• With low self-esteem;

• During outbursts of aggressive behavior;

• In case of difficulties in relationships with others (parents, teachers, peers);

• For depression, apathy, isolation, suicidal thoughts;

• For speech therapy disorders;

• In case of violence or psychological trauma.

A preschool child often has difficulty formulating his experiences. Sand animation therapy will help him overcome this barrier and cope with negative conditions in a playful way.

Sand games for breathing correction

In speech therapy, sand therapy is used to develop diaphragmatic breathing. Before the games begin, the teacher teaches children how to breathe correctly. They should inhale air through their nose, while trying not to raise their shoulders, and inflate their stomach like a “ball”. Inhalation and exhalation are slow and smooth.

The following games are used to correct breathing:

"Smooth road"

The speech therapist draws a path along the sand with a machine. The child should use a stream of air to smooth it out.

"Picture under the sand"

You need to put a color picture on the table and pour sand on top. The child must blow it away from the image.

"The Road to the Animal"

Two animal figures are placed on the sand at a distance from each other. The preschooler must use a long stream of air to form a path from one animal to another.

"Treasure"

A small object is buried in the sand. You need to blow off the air to “unearth” the treasure.

"Boiling water"

Dig a hole and fill it with water. You need to blow hard on the water to make it bubble.

Sand animation

The child will be able to perform the first simple animation in three to four lessons, having mastered the technical basics of drawing. Invite the student to draw an apple tree on the glass. A step-by-step master class is given below:

Prepare sand and screen. Treat the surface of the table with an antistatic agent and remove excess.
Take some sand into your fist and scatter it on the light table. The surface should be covered evenly.
Draw the trunk with your thumb and press down on the entire pad.
Rising to the top of the apple tree, sharpen the line. Draw not all with a pillow, but with a half, then with a nail.
Use your little finger and index finger to draw thin and thick branches. Curve the lines to make the apple tree look like a real one.
Draw a crown. Take sand, pour it generously around the branches, at the top.
Leave a little for the bottom of the picture. Scatter it under a tree. It will be weed.
Using your fingerprints, draw apples on the branches. Determine their number yourself. It is important that the circles are not blurry, the edges should be clear.
If you draw three or four apples under a tree, on the ground, you will get an autumn version of the picture.
Now clear the background. Draw a contour around the crown, remove excess sand from the surface. The tree will have a shape.

On a note! For animation, use a multi-colored drawing set. Using green, yellow, white, gray sand and changing the hue of the image illumination, professionals achieve the effect of a living picture.

How to draw a pig

How to draw a mouse

How to draw a hippopotamus

Therapeutic sand play to develop fine motor skills

The development of fine motor skills is inextricably linked with the development of a child’s speech, memory and thinking. There are many different toys, board games, creative kits and other various methods for this. Sand therapy helps develop hand motor skills for children of different ages.

To develop motor skills, the teacher plays the following games:

"Draw a picture"

A child on a backlit glass table draws a picture with his fingers, and, if necessary, helps himself with his wrist or fist.

"Sensitive palms"

The teacher and the child place their palms on the sand. The senior participant tells how he feels. After this, he asks the child what he is experiencing. This game can be played often; in the process, children not only develop fine motor skills, but learn to understand their sensations.

Note! Sand therapy helps to simultaneously develop various skills: hand motor skills, breathing, speech.

"Sea World"

A child plays with sand in a box, creating a “sea world.” The teacher gives toys with a marine theme, as well as pebbles, shells, and beads. With their help, the child lays out fish, boats and comes up with stories.

What are the benefits of exercising with sand?

Sand activities (both organized with the participation of specialists and children playing independently without the help of adults) have an impact on almost all areas of children’s development, from the development of their sensory organs to the improvement of problem-solving skills. We will give here only the main reasons why you should devote time to the sandbox.

Playing with sand develops tactile perception and fine motor skills

If you carefully observe children in the sandbox, you will notice how many small movements they make: they make Easter cakes, watch in fascination as the sand flows through their fingers, make balls of sand in their palms and destroy them, touch wet and dry sand, bury their hands and feet touching warm and cold sand. All these countless operations greatly develop the child’s fine motor skills, allowing him to easily distinguish objects with different textures, temperatures and shapes. All these skills will be useful to the child more than once in the future: when learning to write, mastering the skills of using cutlery, scissors and other tools.

Helps develop dexterity and coordination

Burying parts of the body, trying to step on Easter cakes or, conversely, go around them, pouring sand into molds and trucks, pouring sand out of a shoe and many other actions develop the child’s understanding of the boundaries and capabilities of his body, teach the baby to decipher his signals (for example, discomfort in a shoe can be fix it by pouring out the stuck sand).

The better the child feels his body, its boundaries, signals and position in space, the better he controls his movements, which means the baby will not have problems with dexterity and coordination.

Improve concentration and develop perseverance

A sand drawing or sand castle takes time to create. A child who is passionate about construction learns to go towards the goal without being distracted by extraneous stimuli, and it is the voluntary concentration of attention that is the key to success in the child’s future school life.

In addition, sand itself has a calming effect on children and adults, so it is especially useful when working with hyperactive children, helping them to calm down and concentrate.

Develop creativity

Creating castles, paintings and whimsical military bases out of sand requires a lot of imagination. Starting with simple shapes, children quickly increase the complexity of their constructions, trying to create something unique. These diligence are not in vain: this is how a child’s creativity develops, he learns not to be shy about expressing himself through creativity.

Teach your child to plan their activities and solve problems

No sand castle can be built without having an idea of the desired result. The child imagines what he wants to build, proceeds to implement the plan, encounters difficulties (for example, a too-high tower begins to fall) and makes changes to the original plan. It would seem that such a simple activity, but for a preschooler it becomes a real school of life, teaching the first lessons of the need for realistic goals and assessment of available resources to implement the plan.

Improves spatial thinking and perception

By exploring different shapes, sizes and distances between objects, children become familiar with the concepts of depth and volume. Efforts aimed at designing buildings contribute to the development of a child’s spatial thinking.

Playing with other children improves communication skills

Any mother can confirm that serious passions boil in the sandbox. Kids learn to communicate with peers and elders in endless conflict and play situations: is it possible to take someone else’s and should you give what is yours? to someone else's. In the sandbox, children begin to learn the fundamental rules of existence in a team: they learn to act together and defend their own, solve problems on their own and call for help, and make their first friends.

Sand activities are very important for the harmonious development of a child. They develop his perception and thinking, improve fine motor skills, train attention and teach him to plan his activities. The sandbox becomes one of the first forms of socialization for the baby, and the mother learns to balance between “Can handle it on her own” and “Needs help.”

Stages of organizing sand therapy in kindergarten

Sand therapy is organized by teachers in kindergartens, psychologists and speech therapists. They use sand games for activities with children. At home, parents can organize a place where the child can play in the sandbox for his own benefit.

The main stages of organizing therapy include:

Preparing a child for sand therapy. He must have a desire to participate in the game.
The teacher must be able to conduct sand therapy, have a creative approach and potential.
Children must be healthy at the time of play. They should not have an allergic reaction to sand.
Preparing the play area: a box of sand, an animation table and toys.
Carrying out the game.

There are many options for sand games. A competent specialist will select the necessary methods that are necessary for the development of a particular child.

Sand can fascinate with its amazing possibilities. Notice how many different fantasies can be realized in a sand drawing. It’s safe to say that not only children, but also adults can enjoy spending time with sand.

Working with sand at home - tips for parents

A full session of sand therapy can only be carried out by a qualified specialist, since only a psychotherapist can properly work through the problem with a child without causing harm. However, at home you can work with children using sand as art therapy. With the help of concentration, enthusiastic work and creating stories, the child will pour out his feelings. It also helps strengthen the central nervous system, improve fine motor skills and maintain attention.

Parents are advised to purchase figurines that match the child's preferences. If there is no box, you can use any container of a convenient size. You can buy ready-made sand, even colored sand. Or take a regular one, having previously treated it thermally.

The main thing is to love your children and accept them for who they are; find wisdom in motherhood. And working with sand will not only normalize your baby’s mental state, but will also help improve communication between you.