Yale University
Child Study Center
230 South Frontage Road
New Haven, CT
06520 USA

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Senses

Seeing, Hearing, Touching, Smelling and Tasting are the five senses. You can spark an interest with young children on a daily basis with the five senses.

Seeing

• Take a child out at night. Or turn off the lights and look out the window. Ask the child what he sees that differs from day.
• Play hide and seek.

Hearing

Help a child notice and identify the wide variety of sounds throughout the day:

“What a noisy truck!”
“The dog is barking outside”

Together with a child look for things that make sound, such as water, music, telephone, and things that do not make sound. Compare them. Are they loud noises or quiet noises?

Touching

Help a child notice, locate and identify the wide variety of textures throughout the day. Together with a child touch a variety of things such as a clothes, sand, fork or spoon. Compare them.
Look for items with varying degrees of wetness, dryness and slimeness: yogurt, cereal, pudding. Compare them. How do they feel? Are they different?

Smelling

Help a child notice and identify a wide range of smells: soap, shampoo, flowers, pine needles, people, apple pie, fruits, or anything that has a scent. Ask the child to close his eyes and give him something familiar to smell and see if he can identify it.

Tasting

Help a child to notice and identify tastes: sweat, sour, bitter, tart, hot (spicy). Ask the child to close his eyes, give him a taste of several different foods and see if he can identify them.

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Last modified: May 15, 2006 . (MGE)
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