Learning Through the Senses: Smell & Taste

Learning Through the Senses: Smell & Taste

Final Installment: Sensory Series

Learning Through Smell & Taste

Welcome to the final article in our “Learning Through the Senses” series, where we have explored how each of the senses plays a role in children’s development and learning.

As children grow, their sensory experiences influence how they perceive, interact with, and learn from their environment. The way we perceive things can be categorized based on the type of sensory input that the brain is receiving:

External Sensory Input

Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell

Internal Sensory Input

Proprioception, vestibular, kinesis (movement)

In this article, we will be focusing on learning through smell & taste perception.

Nose - Smell

Olfactory/Smell Perception

Olfactory perception is the brain’s ability to recognize, interpret, and discriminate between various smells. Smell is processed through the olfactory bulbs, located near the region in our brains responsible for emotions and memory. This close connection explains why certain smells can evoke powerful memories or emotions.

Smell plays an important role in identifying dangers, such as spoiled food or fire, and building emotional bonding. For example, for babies, the mother’s scent can be comforting and contribute to a secure attachment.

Activities to encourage the development of olfactory perception:
  • Make a collection of things that smell: Lavender, garlic, naartjie, curry, talcum powder, coffee, tea, cinnamon.
  • Add aromatherapy oils to playdough.
  • Make a smelly collage. Smear glue onto paper and sprinkle different things that smell over it (cinnamon, ground cloves, etc.).
  • Put someone’s perfume on cotton wool.
  • Get cooking and encourage children to smell ingredients while preparing meals.

Taste - The Tongue

Taste Perception

Taste perception is the brain’s ability to interpret and differentiate between flavours and textures detected by the tongue. Our taste buds perceive five primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Taste is closely linked to smell and around 80% of what we perceive as taste is derived from our sense of smell.

Experiencing different tastes and textures encourages sensory development and helps children to embrace a variety of foods. Exposure to different tastes and textures in early childhood can influence food preferences and dietary habits later in life.

Activities to promote the development Taste Perception:
  • Taste Identification: Sugar (sweet), lemon juice (sour), chips (salty), and ginger (spicy).
  • Temperature Exploration: Taste food/drink with different temperatures, such as ice cream, yogurt, or hot chocolate.
  • Texture Description: Porridge (smooth), Biscuits (crumbly), chips (crunchy).
  • Sweetness Levels: Taste fruit with different sweetness levels such as bananas, grapes and citrus fruits.
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References:
  1. Saamgestel deur Aletta Laing (H.OD.PP.) Eienaar & Juffrou
  2. Raising Happy Children, Lizanne dy Plessis Metz Press
  3. Play,Learn, Know, metz Press, Dr. Melodie deJager & Liz Victor
  4. Small, D. M. (2012). Flavor is in the brain. Physiology & Behavior, 107(4), 540-552.
  5. Cameron, E. L. (2018). Olfactory perception in children. World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 4(1), 57-66. 
  6. Jilani, H., Peplies, J., Buchecker, K. (2019). Assessment of Sensory Taste Perception in Children. In: Bammann, K., Lissner, L., Pigeot, I., Ahrens, W. (eds) Instruments for Health Surveys in Children and Adolescents. Springer Series on Epidemiology and Public Health. Springer, Cham. 

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