Why Kids Should Go Barefoot More?


sensory playmat Australia

We all know about the 5 important senses (sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste), but we often forget about MOVEMENT as a significant sensory component. Play activities like going barefoot on a sensory play mat, stimulate the proprioceptive system and vestibular system that are integral components of healthy development. These systems contribute to everything from balance and visual skills, to attention and behaviour. Exploring the world using the sense of movement further contributes to kids’ secure and organised sense of themselves.

Remember your childhood when kids ran barefoot on the grass, on rocks by the river and on the pebbles and leaves in the garden or forest. We jumped over fallen logs and balanced on them. We waded by the sea or river, looking for empty shells and building castles of sand or mud. Such fun memories and we were fortunate to have felt these amazing experiences under our feet.

But what about our children? Our lifestyles and where we live have changed, and we are less surrounded by nature, and more by the roads and concrete of high density living. Too much screen time and less active play, are one of the primary reason for poor physical, social and intellectual developments in kids .

The solution sounds pretty simple. Give our kids the exposure to nature and the outdoors by visiting forests, walking barefoot on natural elements or make them jump from wooden logs. But our forever busy lifestyle makes it difficult to do everyday.  

While we cannot bring the forest into our home. However, with help of experts, science and technology, we can help recreate the experience in new innovative ways through “Muffik's Orthopaedic sensory playmats”

sensory activity mat

With a focus on barefoot stimulation , the benefits of Muffik’s orthopaedic sensory play mats are rooted within some of nature’s best kept secrets. More specifically, such sensory stimulation has a long and advantageous history, as the interaction between feet and the earth’s natural surfaces and textures has been proven to significantly contribute to healthy bones and joints.

Combining nature and science, Muffik created 3D templates from many natural elements. And then made sensory play mats so you can create your own nature with your chosen elements. How cool is that!

So what is Muffik's Sensory Playmat?

Muffik Orthopaedic sensory playmats are inspired by nature and have been engineered to specifically replicate the surfaces and sensations felt in nature by children’s feet. The soft and firm types of interlocking mats feature the textures and surfaces of grass, pebbles, seashells and forests. These textures mimic the benefits and pleasures of walking barefoot over real surfaces. The purpose is to give children an experience of walking on different natural surfaces in a safe environment. 

Recommended by paediatricians, physiotherapists, podiatrists and occupational therapists, these fun orthopaedic massage mats bring healthy barefoot walking not only to children’s rooms, playrooms and kindergartens; but also to your offices. An interactive toy for babies, toddlers, teens and even adults, that truly is helping to create a healthy lifestyle.

Muffik sensory playmat

These sensory playmats are designed as an interlocking puzzle, just like a jigsaw. They come in 2 sizes with numerous shapes and colours providing hours of fun active play.

sensory water playmat Australia

The Benefits of an Orthopaedic Sensory Playmat

Speaking of benefits, our sensory floor mats provide an excellent alternative to outdoor barefoot play especially when the weather is not really in your favour.

sensory playmat for toddlers

These orthopaedic mats are specially designed to prevent and improve various foot development issues including Valgus (Knock Knee), Varus (Bow Legged) conditions, Club Foot and Flat Feet.

Walking on uneven surfaces help children to distribute their weight evenly and efficiently throughout their bodies and allows children to develop a more natural gait which is gentler, has a shorter stride and puts less pressure through the heels. The knees bend more to cushion each step and the toes help grip and forward movement.

  1. Foot Health 

    The uneven surfaces support the appropriate range of motion in the foot and ankle joints, in addition to adequate strength and stability within the muscles and ligaments of the feet.

  2. Stability and Control

    Walking on Muffik floor mats allows for better control of foot position on contact with the ground. Whereas the wearing of modern stabilizing footwear can interfere with the development of a child’s foot strength, ankle stability and movement pattern.

  3. Body Function and Kinesthetic Awareness

    These sensory play mats strengthen and maintain the full function of the children’s feet and body and supports the improvement of their kinesthetic awareness. This helps children learn to navigate the space around them safely.

  4. Prevention of Flat Feet and Correction of Posture

    Muffik orthopedic puzzles correct gait, flat feet, shrunken arches and help overall posture development.

  5. Improved Balance and Proprioception

    Muffik play mats improve proprioception; the children`s sense of the relative position of body parts in relation to the other parts of the body along with their joint and muscle sensations.

  6. Sensory Stimulation and Fun

    Walking barefoot on Muffik sensory floor mats can also help brain development as children learn to balance and develop all of the other sensory systems in the body.

  7. Beneficial for Kids with Autism

    Yes, Muffik sensory play mats are even recommended for children with autism to improve physical, sensory and cognitive development. Sensory play may provide value for children with regards to processing sensory information and communication.

  8. Versatile for all generation use

    Puzzle floors are incredibly versatile and offer healthy foot development for all generations. Use in the bathroom, as a rug underneath a bed or in offices underneath the table for a relaxing foot massage. Orthopaedic mats help to reduce fatigue and pain, relieve tension in the feet and improve blood circulation. These orthopaedic floor mats are also beneficial for adults through foot relaxation, better activation of foot and ankle muscles, and improved mechanics of the hips, knees, and core.

sensory toys for autistic children

How Safe are Muffik's sensory mats?

With regard to safety, Muffik's puzzle shaped mats are designed with help of orthopaedics, physiotherapists and podiatrists and are super safe for children. ANZ Safety Tested and Certified, non-toxic, anti-slip playmats are manufactured to the highest standard with quality materials so that children have a comfortable and playful experience.

Muffik's sensory floor mats are also tested according to EU standards:  EN 71-1:2014 + A1:2018 and EN 71-2:2011 + A1:2014 and EN 71-3:2019-08.

At TINNITOTS, we are extremely proud to be involved with MUFFIK, helping our passion for educating parents about the importance of a healthy lifestyle in kids from an early stage.

Be it Indoor Gyms or Soft Play or Busy Boards and now Sensory play mats; we continue to bring innovative and interactive products for our Australia and New Zealand parents to help every kid grow into healthy, balanced, confident and capable adults.


Leave a comment


Please note, comments must be approved before they are published


Reviews Wishlist
x
Based on 136 reviews
96%
(130)
4%
(5)
1%
(1)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
Very good sensory product on

My son love to touch them and walk on them
Thanks for that

Super addition to our play

The kids love the mats. So much fun and they’ve been very creative with their uses. The mats feel so varied underfoot too, the adults are drawn to them too.

Absolutely amazing

The Muffik Pink Sensory Playmat Set is such a wonderful sensory and developmental tool . The quality is amazing . Our little one loves them

Magnetic wooden fox

Such a cute wooden fox, I love how it’s good for all ages, easy to put together and lots of fu

Magnetic kangaroo

Perfect wooden puzzle toys, amazing for the imagination and encouraging small play, while working on fine motor skills

My boys love them

We love this set! My 6,4 & 1 year old have been enjoying sensory play with them and they are so easy to clean! A great addition to our playroom

Cute little toy with open ended play opportunities

Beautifully made, we have taken it on our holiday and the kids enjoyed putting it together over and over again. Mixing with the other Aussie animals from the collection gives you the opportunity to make your own animal or creature. Super cute!

Very clever toys

My five year old loves these magnetic dinosaur puzzles! I love that you can pose them and make them stand up on their own!

Sensory experience Expert

My eldest daughter ASD and is such a sensory seeker loves to fidget and explore so many textures. When our order arrived she was in aww of the different textures & designs on each Mat.

Our set is used daily with almost every at home activity from reading books, playing throwing games, jumping, brushing teeth, tracing and painting.

Perfect for all ages, a wonderful product for sensory seeking and autistic kids.

100% recommend these to everyone

Awesome toys

These magnetic dinosaurs are a lot of fun! I love how you can pose them, with the fun challenge of getting them to balance!

Excellent quality. My 2 year old, who is very tactile, loved them immediately and was singing with excitement. Great packaging for neat storage.

Was missing bolts the metal clips are hard to align with the plastic grips hubby had to use a hammer to smooth and roll them out no way I could have done it. Other then that it’s great the kids love it though the monkey bars are extremely high for little ones and you aren’t able to lower them due to the connecting poles

Sensory Play Mats

A fabulous way to stimulate both visual and tactile interaction. Promotes fine motor skills and textural exploration.
Colours are lovely and bright and the quality of the tiles is high. Easy to clean and stack.

Great resource

Got this for my daughter's first birthday and both her and her older 3 year old sister are both getting good use out of it so far.
I also enjoy walking across it and I've put pieces in a couple of areas to maximise use, love how versatile it is.
The only thing I'd say, and only from a detail perspective, I wish I'd known there was only 3 x twister pieces included and two are also the same colour which I found odd. One of the images on the description and the set of four which made more sense.

Kids love them

We absolutely love them. They are fantastic to add a sensory element to our playroom.

Absolutely love this product. It keeps our grandchildren busy and stimulates their mind with imaginative play as they make up lands for each of the different textures.

Need to add another to our set!

This was another great addition to our set. The kids love it.. so much so that I think we need to add another!

Great addition!

Have you got a little one that loves the outdoors and being barefoot, this mat is a perfect sensory addition to your set!

Great addition!

Our sensory mats are so well loved. When we decided to add more to our set my boy was drawn to this one in particular!
He says it feels like a massage on his feet and I have to agree!

Small world play just got better!

My children are a huge fan of matchbox cars and small world play, so adding this set to our already well loved Sensory Mats was a HUGE hit!
If you have little car lovers, I highly recommend!

R
Travel Busy Cube
Renee Shepherd
Great for Car Trips!

Living 20mins out of town our busy cube lives permanently in our car. The kids love fidgeting with all the gadgets on the cube and it keeps them busy for ages.

Great sensory input

I bought these for my therapy service. These are great for babies - lots of tactile input, easy to clean and create lots of curiosity and exploration!

K
Muffik Pink Sensory Playmat Set
Katherine Stephenson
Amazing!

I had been wanted these sensory mats for ages and wish I had bought them sooner. They are are beautiful and well made. My toddler loves stepping on things so these are perfect. Even my husband and I enjoy walking over them! Couldn’t recommend these enough!

Love this product

My students and I love the sensory mat and have nearly all the squares now in hard and soft. Tinnitots have been wonderful to deal with and are the only company I am aware of in Australia offering single mat pieces. As a small business owner this has allowed me to grow my mat of 8 squares to 24 over the year. My students love the mat and it’s moveable I take it in the car when visiting other students and they love putting it together in their home.