The SEN Resources Blog

We’ve been on the look out for the best sensory books for young children, in particular tactile books that children can touch and feel.

Skip to our Amazon Shop to find them all here

Why are sensory books important?

• Young children learn through their senses- Tactile books are great for children, there’s a reason babies like to put things in their mouths and why your toddler likes to touch everything in sight- they are exploring the world through touch…and tactile books enable children to explore books this way!

• Develops Vocabulary- I love how tactile books can help children to develop their adjectives (often without realising!) by describing how the books feel soft/bumpy/rough etc.

• Visual Impairments– For visually impaired children tactile books provide more access, enabling them to explore the pictures using touch.

Here are our current favourite tactile/ ‘ touch and feel’ books for young children.

• Off to the Beach– For those that read our blog regularly, you may remember us reviewing this book a while ago and singing its praises: “I can’t stress enough how fantastic the tactile elements (touch and feel sections) in these two books are. They are absolutely incredible! In Off to the Beach there’s everything needed to fully imagine a day at the beach, including squishy wetsuits, shiny sunglasses and rough sand to pretend to jump in“ continue reading our read our full review here.

• ‘That’s not my…’ We had to include this (almost legendary) series by Usborne. Great repetition, gorgeous illustrations and a range of topics to cater for practically every child.

• Baby Touch: Vehicles Tab Book– This book is fantastic and has some really different and brilliant tactile elements that allow children to explore the shapes and textures of a range of vehicles.

• Never Touch a Shark (Touch and Feel)– I’m a huge fan of this series, not only do I love that they’ve chosen an unusual material for the tactile parts of the book (it’s more of a rubber feel than the usual soft materials in children’s books) but the illustrations are also a bit more grown up and would be great for older children who benefit from sensory play.

• Red & Blue (Touch, Feel, Explore!) This book is lovely. It uses well designed cut-out and raised sections for children to touch, in order to create an interactive way for children to learn colours.

• Where’s Mr Unicorn? (Felt Flaps) I’m a little bit in love with this adorable series! There’s a whole menagerie of these gorgeous books and each has soft, felt flaps to lift. Not only are they lovely to feel but the flaps are also very practical as they don’t get worn as easily as card/paper.

Matchstick Monkey: Colours: A finger-trail adventure What’s not to love? This book is packed full of sparkles, monkeys and colours! Children explore the motion of each monkey by following the glitter lines with their fingers. Fantastic as an introduction to the shapes that form the letters of the alphabet.

—

*Please note, we were sent samples of some books for review, however, are words and opinions are our own. Please also note this post contains Amazon Affiliate links, for more information see our About me page.