Sensory base recipes for kids

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” — Benjamin Franklin

Children and even adults learn best and retain the most information when they engage their senses.From birth through to early childhood, children use their senses to explore and try to make sense of the world around them. They do this by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, moving and hearing.

OUR SENSES

• Taste – the stimulation that comes when our taste receptors react to chemicals in our mouth.

• Touch – the stimulation that comes from touch receptors in our skin that react to pressure, heat/cold, or vibration.

• Smell – the stimulation of chemical receptors in the upper airways (nose).

• Sight – the stimulation of light receptors in our eyes, which our brains then interpret into visual images.

• Hearing – the reception of sound, via mechanics in our inner ear.

• Body awareness (proprioception) – the feedback our brains receive from stretch receptors in our muscles and pressure receptors in joints which enable us to gain a sense where our bodies are in space.

• Balance – the stimulation of the vestibular system of the inner ear to tell us our body position in relation to gravity.

SENSORY PLAY
Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses: touch, smell, taste, movement, balance, sight and hearing.Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore.

  “Play is the work of childhood.” —Jean Piaget

According to Piaget's theory of development, children from the age of zero to eight are in two different stages of development:

1)Sensori-motor stage(0-2 years):