5 Ways To Sharpen And Hone Your Baby’s Senses (Part 1)

Mark Wealth

The five basic senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling are crucial to exploration and development.

According to experts, babies are born with these five senses nearly fully developed. However, creating regular, fresh, safe and fun sensory experiences are therefore crucial to exercise, sharpen and hone baby’s sensory abilities. There’s likely to be a huge difference between a toddler exposed to sensory developing opportunities and one who wasn’t when they were babies.

Find 5 simple and fun ideas that will stimulate your baby’s senses….

1. Bottles of Joy

Some people call them sensory bottles, others call them discovery bottles but I call them bottles of joy. This is because, whether it’s colourful buttons, beads or goo you put in the transparent plastic bottles, toddlers will go drunk with joy at the loud colours and beautiful sounds the bottles make as they are rolled along, picked up and thrown around. Muscles are exercised, motor skills refined, and they’re exposed to varieties of sounds and colours.

2. Toy Box of Harmless Pieces

Get any unused carton and fill it with amusing objects ranging from compact discs, dismembered toys and disposable cups. While your child will enjoy taking them out, he’s also experiencing colours, texture, shape, taste and the sounds they make while bringing them out, putting them back in, hitting them against the floor or one another.

3. Good Ol’ Pasta

This activity is for babies who have started feeding themselves. Pasta is one of the best sensory play tools because children this age are still in the mouthing stage. This means they will put almost everything they pick up in their mouth. Go ahead and switch it up! Occasionally, give a dish of noodles. Add some food colouring to increase the novelty. This will develop both motor and sensory skills in a fun way.

4. That’s Another Me?

Babies love to look at their reflection, so, indulge them often by putting them in front of a large mirror or giving safe reflective objects while you watch. As he wonders who this other baby smiling, giggling, or waving back at him is, his visual skills are honed.

5. Pots, Pans and Music

Yes, it might get a little noisy before long but applying some control might help you and your baby make some melodious music knocking on pots and pans with a teaspoon. This will help build one of your baby’s senses which is his auditory and his appreciation for music which is a different ball game from plain hearing sounds. Hitting together different kitchen utensils will help your child appreciate the difference between noise and acceptable decibels of stimulating sounds.