Parents Zone
Activate Multi-sensory Exploration to Unleash Children's Potential
Multi-sensory exploration enables children to comprehend and experience the world through visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory stimuli.
While this concept may be familiar to most parents, how can they enrich their children's multi-sensory experiences? Here are three suggestions on how to offer abundant sensory stimulation in everyday life to cultivate children's sensory abilities, enhance cognitive and language skills, and foster their curiosity and an adventurous spirit towards the world.
1.Varied culinary experiences
Food serves as a readily accessible educational tool in daily life. Parents can engage children in meal preparation tasks like washing fruits, mixing ingredients, etc. This involvement allows children to touch, smell, and taste ingredients, facilitating the development of their tactile, olfactory, and gustatory senses. Parents can also prompt children to taste different foods to explore diverse flavours and textures, and describe the tastes and sensations they encounter, thus nurturing their language and sensory development.
2. Multi-sensory artistic endeavours
Art activities, including visual arts, music, and dance, can create wonderful family engagements. Parents simply need to provide a range of materials such as paint, clay, paper and more, and spend time together with their children exploring freely touching, painting, or moulding these materials. During this time, parents can also encourage their children to observe the changes in colours, shapes, or textures, thereby stimulating their visual, tactile, and creative senses. For more energetic children, parents can host a "music party" at home, playing various music genres. Together with their children, they can listen to and feel the rhythms, tones, and volumes while dancing or moving freely, thus engaging their auditory and kinaesthetic senses.
3. Outdoor expeditions
Parents can take their children outdoors to immerse them in sensory experiences in nature. For instance, while on a walk, prompt children to observe different plants and insects, listen to variations in bird calls, and feel the soil's texture. You can also explore parks or beaches together, collecting leaves, rocks, or seashells, and discussing their distinctive features. The diversity of nature not only enriches children’s sensory encounters but also heightens their awareness and appreciation of the natural world.
The above-mentioned methods serve as a starting point for children to explore their multiple senses; engaging in conversations and interactions with young children is crucial for developing their skills in multi-sensory exploration. Therefore, dedicating a bit more time to play games, observe surroundings together, and share observations and experiences, while offering positive feedback and encouragement, is essential for sparking children's interest in learning and nurturing their curiosity for exploration.