Sensory Exploration: Listen, Sniff, Taste, Smell, and Touch

Sensory Exploration: Listen, Sniff, Taste, Smell, and Touch


At birth, your baby had approximately 100 billion brain cells!1 These brain cells carry out important bodily functions, such as “breathing, a heartbeat, blood pressure and circulation, and digestion,”1 but soon she will also begin using them to explore the world with her senses. As she takes in information from the environment and her early experiences, she’ll be developing her memory and other learning abilities.

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According to psychologist Jean Piaget, babies are in the sensorimotor stage of development from birth to age two. This means that at this age your baby’s knowledge of the world is limited to what she can take in from her senses and her motor abilities (as opposed to learning through logic, reasoning, or understanding of abstract concepts).2,3 In particular, she learns about her environment and how things work in the world through Sensory Exploration, which includes sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.4,5

Because your baby’s inner ear (cochlea) is nearly fully developed at birth, she can enjoy sounds from the start!6 Research has shown that babies start hearing and processing sounds and rhythms while in their mom’s belly, including mom’s ever-present voice, music, running appliances (e.g. the washing machine), and the barking of the family dog.7,8 In fact, new research shows that not only do babies hear their mom in utero, but they actually start processing what they hear to help them understand and learn language.9 What can you do to encourage the development of her sense of hearing? Just keep on sharing music and conversations with your newborn! In particular, babies respond well to the higher frequencies of infant-directed speech, also known as parentese (a sing-song, high-pitched way of speaking, which you may have found yourself already doing!).4 They also like the familiar rhythms of washing machines and vacuum cleaners, which mimic the sounds of the womb.10

Babies have a strong sense of smell right from the start as well, which allows them to identify familiar, trusted people not only through sight and sound, but through smell as well! For instance, when your newborn smells breast milk, she will instinctively start rooting for her mom’s breast to eat.6 She will eventually learn to identify the scent of familiar toys or blankets, making it difficult to replace these comfort items without notice!!4

Closely related to the sense of smell is taste, and your baby’s taste buds are actually formed by 21 weeks of gestation. Even more amazing, she will actually be able to smell and taste the foods her mom eats when she swallows amniotic fluid!11 At 0-3 months, she won’t be able to tell the difference between what she “tastes” from what she “feels” in her mouth.4 This means that you may find her using her sense of taste not only to fill her belly, but also to explore objects and to comfort herself.12 

Do you want to help your baby get a leg up on developing her smarts? Her brain connections will either be strengthened or eliminated over time through a “use it or lose it” mechanism.So, go ahead and expose her to a variety of different sensations and experiences to broaden her understanding and awareness of the world around her.

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your baby’s development of Sensory Exploration skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

  1. Play a variety of music and instruments. By exposing your baby to a variety of music and sounds early on, you will excite her ears and develop her appreciation of music over time. At this young age, be sure to offer music that is not overstimulating or too loud, and look for signs that she’s uncomfortable. Consider offering her soft lullabies or sweet melodic tunes that are pleasant to listen to.
  2. Make smelling pleasant and fun.4 You can support your baby’s sense of smell by making it fun to sniff out interesting things in her environment. Make it a point to share different-smelling objects on a daily basis, including flowers you pick, cookies you bake, spices you cook with, or aromatic soaps you use at bath time! Be sure to describe what she is smelling and to only offer objects that are safe, non-toxic, and non-allergenic.

Developmental Milestone:

Has your baby achieved the following Sensory Exploration developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

  • Turns head toward sounds.
  • Recognizes and reacts to familiar scents.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Sources:

1Zero to Three (2011). FAQ’s on the Brain. Zero to Three: National Center on Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Retrieved January 14, 2014, from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/brain-development/faqs-on-the-brain.html.

2Piaget, Jean (1983). Piaget’s Theory. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Volume 1 (4th ed.) (pp. 103-128). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

3Piaget, Jean (1952). Logic and Psychology. In Howard E. Gruber and J.. Jacques Voneche (Eds.), The Essential Piaget (pp. 445-477). New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc.

4Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

5Delaware Department of Education (2010). Delaware Early Learning Foundations: Infant/Toddler.

6Nugent, Kevin and Morell, Abelardo (2011). Your Baby is Speaking to You. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

7Silburg, Jackie (2000). Brain Games for Babies, Toddlers and Two’s. London, UK: Hamlyn of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.

8McGolerick, Elizabeth W. Find Out What your Fetus Hears in Utero. SheKnows: Pregnancy & Baby. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/articles/945349/fetal-development-what-does-baby-really-hear-in-utero

9Mann, Denise (2013). Babies Listen and Learn While in the Womb. WebMD. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20130102/babies-learn-womb.

10Karp, Harvey, M.D. (2003). The Happiest Baby on the Block. New York, NY: Bantam Dell.

11Gammon, Katherine (2011). Thank Mom for Your Love of Garlic. Inside Science.Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.insidescience.org/content/thank-mom-your-love-garlic/1128.

12New Jersey Council for Young Children (2013). New Jersey Birth to Three: Early Learning Standards.

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