Create Tactile Mazes
Playing with tactile mazes can be a fun way to talk about movement, getting lost, and plotting a course with your blind child.
Does Pete worry if he gets lost? Goodness, no!
Below are instructions for making your own tactile mazes, or:
Maze Description
This is a simple maze that can be really squishy and fun to play with! It's completely enclosed, so it's also a fun quiet bag that you can take with you on car rides or when you need something to occupy little hands. The activity is to push the ball around the maze.
What You'll Need
How to Make Your Ziploc Squish Maze
- 1. Cut a long strip of duct tape (length-wise) that is two inches shorter than the width of your Ziploc bag. Fold the tape in thirds with the sticky part facing out. You now have a nice long sticky path to place inside your plastic bag. (You will be making three of these strips.)
- 2. Carefully place the first duct-tape "tube" inside your bag, near the bottom third of the bag. Press firmly on the tape to set it in place; it should stick to the upper and lower insides of the bag. Duct tape is strong stuff, so once you've pressed it down, you won't be able to move it!
- 3. Alternate lines of tape to make a maze path. We were able to fit three "tubes" of tape in our gallon Ziploc bag to make four rows in our maze.
- 4. Fill your bag with water. This makes the maze a little more challenging and also adds a fun sensory bonus!
- 5. Place a large marble or wooden bead in the maze and seal the bag (I used some heavy-duty duct tape). You can now use your fingers to find the ball and push it through the maze!
Some Fun Alternatives
- Add braille! You could add the words "start" and "finish" in braille to your bag maze, so your child will know where they should be heading with their marble.
- Add dish soap! If you thought water was fun, try this maze filled with dish soap! Dish soap is much more viscous than water, so the result is a very squishy maze. It's fun to touch and the marble moves much slower, adding a little more challenge.
- Add color! If your child has vision, use brightly colored marbles so they stand out in the maze. If you are using dish soap, for example, try to use a dish soap color that will contrast nicely with your marble. That way, your child can find the marble both by sight and by touch. We used blue dish soap and a bright orange marble.
This activity was created by Amber Bobnar of WonderBaby.org for Great Expectations.
