Children learn by interacting with their surroundings through various senses. These include touch, smell, vision, hearing, and taste. It helps them take in information and then form a reaction appropriate to the environment or communicate what they need.
Because of this, it is crucial to give your child a sensory-enriching environment to boost their development. Here are the top nine tips to stimulate the sensory development of your baby.
Key Notes
- Use sensory-building foods
- Stimulate senses through your own voice and touch
- Regularly go to the paediatrician to check the development milestones of your baby
- Invest in touch-and-feel books for them to learn about textures and feelings
1. Hanging A Mobile Above The Crib
You might think that such a small thing can’t really affect a baby’s development, but it can. We recommend that you hang a mobile above the crib with various images and shapes. These shapes and images will provide visual stimulation to your baby.
The best part is that this small tip is great for boosting the development of your baby’s eyes. Make sure that you select high-contrast images and shapes. These will develop the eyes of your baby in the best way possible.
2. Sensory-Building Foods
Yes, even mealtime can be one of the best opportunities to let your child know about various tastes and textures. You can stimulate their taste sense by providing them with sensory foods. These include cucumber, applesauce, broccoli, kiwi, peas, and much more.
All of these foods have a unique texture that will stimulate the taste senses of your baby. They will learn what is smooth, tangy, crunchy, bumpy, and more. So, it will allow them to develop their tastes.
3. Sing During Bath Time
You can use every opportunity to boost the senses of your baby, including bath time. During this time, you can sing to your baby to activate the neurosensory part of the auditory system. Keep in mind that the auditory system is in a mode of full development till a baby is six months.
If you are a new parent, this is one of the most important things you can do during bath time. So, make sure that you gently sing to your child when they are in the bath.
4. Massage Baby With Lotion After A Bath
A great way to stimulate the touch sense is to massage your baby with lotion after their bath. It is a great way to improve their cognitive performance. On the other hand, you can also use other ways to activate this sensory experience.
These include:
- Swaddling
- Cuddling with your baby
- Creating skin-to-skin contact
- Providing them with a stuffed animal
While doing all of this, make sure that you use ways that encourage bonding and warmth. It will help the baby feel safe in no time.
5. Play In Front Of The Bathroom Mirror
After you have taken a bath, you can play with your child in front of the bathroom mirror. Such visual stimulation will teach them a lot about this sensory experience. For example, they will learn to recognize emotions, track images, focus, and how reflections work.
All of this is crucial to optimal cognitive development and engaging the right senses. Make sure that you do this once a day with your baby so that they can have some visual stimulation that also includes them.
6. Use Musical Instruments
Using musical instruments will stimulate the hearing sense of your baby and aid in development. However, not everyone has access to musical instruments at their home. If that is the case, then you can create your own musical instruments to teach your baby about cause and effect.
For example, you can take a container and pour some rice or beans on it in front of your baby. When you do this, it will help them understand cause and effect. Besides that, they will also learn more about tone and rhythm as the rice creates a sound against the container.
7. White Noise Machine
You can invest in a white noise machine to make sure your baby goes to sleep calmly and peacefully. Besides that, it will also help them learn more about sounds such as:
- Ocean waves
- Birds
- Crickets
- Rain
- And much more
They will learn these novel sounds and also identify them in their surroundings when they go out. So, make sure that you have a white noise machine at home for this purpose.
8. Touch And Feel Books
There are many touch-and-feel books that you can invest in to introduce your baby to various textures and feelings. These books include textures such as bumpy, scaly, fuzzy, and much more. You can take their hands and help them touch these books as they explore their texture.
It will help them develop a touch sense so that they can explore their environment later on. So, get some touch-and-feel books that will help the child understand the different textures that exist in our surroundings.
9. Go For Regular Checkups To The Pediatrician
Keep in mind that you also need to keep a check on the optimal sensory development of your baby. This is why it is crucial to visit the paediatrician from time to time. That is especially true if your baby is showing symptoms early on.
After all, it is good to understand issues from an early age so that you can take the right steps to curb these issues. Once you do, the sensory development of your baby will be optimal.
Why Stimulation Is Important For Sensory Development In Babies
Now that you have all the tips, you might still wonder why sensory stimulation is important. Here are some reasons you should opt for such stimulation to ensure the optimal sensory development of your baby:
Brain Development
Sensory stimulation is an important aspect of brain development. That is because research shows that newborns brains develop at least two to three million synapses each second. Then, these connections create a route for sensory messages to reach the brain.
Keep in mind that the more the synapses are used, the quickly they will become permanent. Because of this, sensory stimulation is ideal for creating these pathways that promote the normal development of brain.
It also aids the child in learning about the surroundings, communicating with the environment, and creating attachments with others.
Digesting And Storing New Knowledge
Jean Piaget is one of the top theorists of developmental psychology, and he was the first one to suggest the important of sensory play. According to him, sensory stimulation helps babies digest new information, and then store it for later reference. This is one of the most important aspects of the brain development of a child.
That is because they will take in the sensory stimulation, experience how it takes place, and then understand what happened when it takes place again. You can use this to teach children about cause and effect, object permanence, and more. It will help them in understanding their world better.
Balance Development
It is important to help your child create a sense of balance during their development. You can do this by opting for play, such as jumping, swinging, hanging, and much more. All of these movements come from the vestibular system in the inner ear.
You can boost the development of this system with these actions so that it remains strong throughout the life of the child. Each system in our body is there for our benefit. As a parent, it is crucial for you to help your baby develop these systems with sensory stimulation and play.
Supporting Learning And Development
Sensory stimulation is not only about taking in new experiences and making sense of the world. Instead, the connections that the brain is making during such activities are incredibly helpful in learning and development that will help the child till adulthood. A baby that has not been providing with such an enriching environment will experience stunted learning and development.
Even in adulthood, such babies will have to work harder to reach the same level as babies who have been provided with a good sensory stimulation and environment. That is why it is important to expose your child to sensory stimuli from an early age.
However, an important note to keep in mind is that babies can become overwhelmed. So, make sure that you are slowly and gradually adding such stimulus. Once you do, it will help them in building new brain connections and having a healthy a childhood and adult life.
Final Thoughts
These are the top nine tips that will help boost the sensory development of your baby in the best way possible. After all, parents need to provide their children with a little boost so that they can learn to interact with their environment and explore various things.
Once they have such an environment, it will boost their cognitive and sensory development.
Make sure you consistently incorporate these tips. Once you do, your baby will have excellent sensory development as they grow up.
