Sense of Hearing:
It is apparent that babies can hear and distinguish their mother’s voice while they are still in her womb. They will gradually familiarize themselves with their father’s voice and other voices. Babies favor certain sounds, such as the sound of the vacuum cleaner, which resembles sounds he/she used to hear in the womb. The development of hearing is important to understand words, sounds, and gestures that help him/her to communicate. Also singing and playing musical instruments are great ways to introduce all sorts of sounds and melodies to children.
To strengthen a child’s senses of hearing, parents can apply a simple activity by bringing in empty jars and placing different materials inside them, such as bean beads and coins, to hear the difference between them. For children who are older, parents can extend the activity to ask the child to put the jars with similar sounds together. In the second stage of activity, ask your child to guess the name of the object inside the jar by distinguishing its sound.
Sense of Sight:
When any child is born, he/she cannot see things for more than 40 centimeters away, and their vision will be unclear. However, when a child is two months, he/she begins to coordinate the movement of the eyes and can start to distinguish colors. To help your child develop his/her vision and facial expressions, look into their eyes as you talk to him/her so they can imitate you. Try to choose toys with primary colors, such as red and yellow, or secondary colors, such as orange and green. Move the toys left and right to enable your child to follow these toys and move his/her eyes. Your child will also become familiar with the faces and places he/she sees frequently and they’ll begin to develop their visual connection to the world around them.
Sense of Taste:
Babies already develop taste buds and begin to taste things while he/she is in the mother’s womb. When the child is born, he/she can distinguish between bitter and sweet tastes. It is important for the development of your child’s taste to try different foods so that he/she can accept to try different meals in the future. It is recommended to choose vegetables and fruits first, then other foods without adding salt or sugar. You may notice that children put almost everything in their mouths to recognize it, and this is their “oral” way of exploring.
Sense of Smell:
From the moment your child is born, he/she will be able to distinguish their mother’s smell. By recognizing the mother’s scent the child feels comforted and secure knowing that he is with her. Mother’s support this development by trying not to wear highly perfumed or fragranced skin products in the early days.
When parents cuddle their baby, and they can smell each other’s scent, both of them experience higher levels of the hormone oxytocin. This often refers to the cuddle or love hormone and it helps with the bonding process.
Overall babies usually prefer light, fresh smells like a lemon while getting upset by strong odors like spiced curry’s.
As your child grows older, you can do fun activities like “getting to know things through smells” by choosing different types of spices, perfumes, food, and other things with different smells, and try to ask your children to distinguish between them and how they would describe them.
Sense of Touch:
It is known that skin-to-skin contact with babies is important for their development. Particularly in the newborn period, it helps calm babies: they cry less and it helps them sleep better. There are some studies that show their brain development is facilitated—probably because they are calmer and sleep better.
Also, the child’s sense of touch will start to develop as they discover the material around them such as coarse and soft fabric and the different materials their toys are made from. It is also important to play and discover the surrounding environment of sand, grass, water and other materials.