When kids play with stickers, they’re doing a lot more than adding decorations to their playroom furniture—they’re also experiencing the many benefits that sticker play can provide
Parenting experts, pediatricians, and child psychologists agree that sticker play—locating, peeling, applying, and removing stickers from surfaces—promotes a number of developmental skills that young kids and toddlers will need for their school days and beyond. Starting between 12-18 months, young kids can begin to explore sticker play with adult supervision, but as kids age, it’s also a great activity to promote independent play.
For parents and caregivers, stickers can be an invaluable resource for open-ended, developmental play. As the otholly.com blog notes, “Stickers…are a quick, low-prep, low-cost activity that can keep [kids] entertained for a decent chunk of time, they are an easy travel activity, and if that’s not enough, they are great for fine motor and cognitive development.”
If you’re a parent or caregiver with a child who’s interested in sticker play, you can feel good knowing that when your kiddo plays with stickers, there’s a host of benefits they’re enjoying. In this blog post, Melissa & Doug runs down the various benefits of sticker play and provides toy recommendations from our vast assortment of sticker play.
Skills that Sticker Play Helps Promote for Kids
Pincer Grip/C-Grip/Fine Motor Skills/Gross Motor/Hand-Eye Coordination
Whether kids are peeling stickers from a book or using the Character Stampers from our new Sticker Wow! collection, playing with stickers offers kids the opportunity to work on their gross & fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, as well as their pincer and C-grip movements, which are important developmental factors as kids learn to write.
Creative Expression
Each Sticker Wow! Character Stamper—Dog, Unicorn, Dinosaur, and Tiger—comes with its own activity book which provides kids with play prompts and challenges. But kids can also express themselves creatively through open-ended sticker play: using stickers, kids can tell a story, create a scene, draw a picture, add decorations to crafts, start a journal, and much more.
Cognitive Skills
According to the MyJoyFilledLife blog, parents, caregivers, and teachers can use stickers to shake up a child’s learning routine: Use stickers to create visually appealing and engaging DIY learning aids such as flash cards, memory games, or lesson plans.
Positive Behavior & Responsibility
Preschools and daycare centers often use stickers to reward positive behavior—why not use a similar system at home? Reward your kiddo when they perform their chores, make good choices, model good behavior, and more!
Fun & Accomplishment
Kids enjoy playing with stickers because it’s FUN, and when kids actually enjoy an activity, it’s a good destressor for them. Plus, when kids have fun with something, they want to do it MORE, which helps build independence as well. Finally, there’s a real sense of accomplishment that kids feel when they complete a sticker-themed or other creative project
For More Resources
When kids play with stickers, it promotes a number of important developmental skills that kids will need in their school days and beyond. From gross and fine motor skills, to creative expression, to cognitive skills and much more, sticker play provides kids with a wide range of benefits that they’ll need to become successful adults. Thanks to the MyJoyFilled Life, TheOTToolbox, OTHolly, and MummyItsOk blogs for information sourcing. Encourage sticker play to your kiddos for all the learning benefits they can handle!
For more sticker activities and content from Melissa & Doug, click the links below:
Shop ALL Melissa & Doug Stickers & Sticker Books
Shop Melissa & Doug’s Sticker Wow! Collection
Melissa & Doug Launches Sticker WOW!™ An Innovative New Stickering Toy
