Sensory

Babies and children learn and discover the world through their senses.

Sensory development starts in the womb and develops throughout childhood, and into adulthood. It is important for overall health and well-being and forms the foundation of a child’s learning.

We have eight senses that tell us about ourselves and the world around us.

Touch, smell, hearing, taste and vision and then some others you may be less familiar with, known as vestibular (sense of movement and helps us balance), proprioception (tells us about our movements and where the body is in space) and interoception (the internal sense i.e. hunger, hot/cold, pain).

We all have likes and dislikes and form individualised sensory preferences.
Babies can already recognise their parents’ voices, mothers’ rhythms and smells when they are born.

They learn these from within the safety of the womb.

From birth babies start reacting to the sensory stimulation. They turn their head towards sound, follow objects with their eyes and discover their hands and feet by touching them.

Later they start to develop eye-hand coordination and will use their hands to reach and touch something they see. They then begin eye-hand-mouth exploration by putting things into their mouths, which stimulates the sense of taste.

It is through sensation that they learn about movement, play, connection, sharing, love and learning.
Infants use their senses both to familiarise themselves with the environment and to achieve comfort, and every baby/infant goes about this differently.

The Play @ Home baby and toddler booklets provided by your health visitor have some great age appropriate activities to encourage sensory development. Below are some more suggestions for sensory exploration.