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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

Pages:  1  2  3  

Parents play airplane games with their toddlers to encourage them to eat their dinner. But sometimes it's important to teach children about the sense of taste without an agenda such as wanting them to eat their carrots or sweet potatoes. Through sensory play, toddlers learn to appreciate the gift of taste.

Dr. Alan Hirsch, the neurological director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Ill., says about 90 percent of what people perceive to be taste is really smell. "If you hold your nose and eat chocolate it tastes just like chalk," he says. "It has no taste at all. When we say taste, we really mean smell. To tell if a toddler has a true taste disorder as opposed to a smell problem is going to be a real, real challenge."

Play Taste Games
By providing a toddler with a wide range of taste experiences and playing games related to taste, parents can help develop their toddler's sense of taste and gustatory system, the sensory system that uses taste buds on the upper surface of the tongue to provide information about the taste of food to the brain.

"Make them aware of smell and taste and how they are different," Dr. Hirsch says. He encourages parents to play taste games. "Take apple juice and take food dye and color it purple or orange," he says. "Let them taste it. Let them play with it. Take them out of the box of what would be surprising, so purple liquid won't taste like grape juice, but apple juice. By manipulating other sensory modalities, it makes them aware of the gustatory sense."

Food Battles
Michelle Lacey, mother of Ashleigh, 3, and Luke, 1, from Lutz, Fla., says her children are at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to their preferences for food. "[Ashleigh] is not picky at all," Lacey says. "Her brother is picky. He does not like anything wet or mushy. I can't feed him with a spoon."

Infants and toddlers often explore their world by putting items in their mouths. Luke is no exception, as he puts little toys in his mouth, but he is not as fond of vegetables. "He does not like any vegetables," Lacey says. "He makes faces and spits them out. It's a battle. He eats pancakes and other carbohydrates. He will pig out on that. He likes cheese and milk." She says her daughter likes chocolates and sweets.

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