Dough Toys

Using play-dough with young children is beneficial in so many ways.
Many educative videos of toys made of clay and dough.
There are several claymation toys, done using stop motion techniques, in the app as well.

Here are some ideas of how fabulous it is, divided into the areas of development that it helps:

Skill development:
The malleable properties, make it fun for investigation and exploration as well as secretly building up strength in all the tiny hand muscles and tendons,  making them ready for pencil and scissor control later on. 

Poking in objects and pulling them out of play dough strengthens hand muscles and co-ordination
Each one of these different actions aids fine motor development in a different way, not to mention hand-eye co ordination and general concentration. And as soon as you add another element to it, the list of benefits and creative play possibilities continues to grow!

By providing objects from nature with a wide range of textures, colours and shapes, children can have multi-sensory experiences and engage with the world around them in a whole new way. 

Imagination and Creativity:
As soon as you introduce open ended play items to add to the mix, play-dough becomes the perfect medium for numerous types of imaginative play and can represent so many things in a child’s eyes.