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Home › Articles › Toddlers › Sensory Play for Toddlers

Sensory Play for Toddlers

Salty, Sour, Bitter and Sweet

Part Three

By Laura Cone

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"Some taste disorders occur from birth," says Dr. Hirsch. "About 15 percent of the population have an inability to taste one form of taste or another, and you would never know it until they die. People compensate for their taste loss by smelling. The most common cause of true taste disorder is the genetic one."

Montessori's Method
Angeline Lillard, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (Oxford, 2005), says sensory education is one of the fundamentals of the Montessori method. Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, devised a method based on her belief that children learn best through active experience.

Lillard, who is the mother of two children, says parents should engage their child in sensory play as well as encourage their child to play pretend. "People learn better and do better when they are doing what is interesting to them and have more choice and control over it," Lillard says. "Pretending is one of the only times in Montessori schools where you give children a lot of choice and control over what they are doing and let them pursue what is interesting to them."

While some people believe intelligence is first developed through sensory education, Lillard says she is skeptical. Nevertheless, having a pretend tea party as well as a real tea party during which toddlers experience the different aromas and flavors of teas are both positive experiences, she says.

Finally, you don't need to enroll your child in a Montessori program to help him develop his senses. Help your toddler at home by identifying the location of taste buds. Your toddler has taste buds in his cheeks and under his tongue. Encourage your toddler to notice how the tip of his tongue identifies sweet foods, while the side of the tongue picks up sour and salty tastes and the back of the tongue is his bitter taste radar. In a few years, your toddler's understanding of taste may evolve into his or her first science project.

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