Introduction The value of stimulating the five senses as part of early learning is not a new concept. The great educational pioneers of the twentieth century, Maria Montessori and Loris Malaguzzi, understood that children learn from direct, whole-body experiences. In the 1970s the scientist and psychologist Elinor Goldschmied studied the way in which babies explore objects using their senses. There is also a deeper understanding of the benefits of a multi-sensory approach for children with special needs, and this has produced some inspiring sensory environments (Lindon). However, it is easy to take children's early sensory experiences for granted and miss the breadth of learning that a consistent focus on the senses can facilitate. Incorporating a multi-sensory approach can bring teaching and learning alive with new ways to experience the ordinary and familiar. What is a Multi-sensory Approach? A multi-sensory approach is one that consistently promotes children's instinctive sensory awareness, making use of all the learning that the senses offer. The key aspect of a multi-sensory model is that it reaches beyond understanding what the five senses are and what they can do. The EYFS says that 'Babies and children are social and curious, and they explore the world through relationships with others and through all their senses' (card 1.1). Young children build up knowledge of objects, places, events and feelings through sensory experience. Educationalist Janet Moyles explains in more detail that 'young children learn through all their senses - by touching, feeling, smelling, tasting, hearing, moving and exploring. From this they generate perceptions about the world and its events, from which in turn they create mental images which are the mainstay of their developing conceptions of the world' (p.23). Goldschmied's studies in the 1970s demonstrated other types of learning that occurred when infants explored through their senses. She designed the 'treasure basket' for babies aged between six and nine months which contained everyday things such as pine cones, shells and household objects. As she observed the babies holding these objects in their hands, looking at them and putting them in their mouths, she saw that they were learning not just about the object, but about their own likes and dislikes and what their bodies could do: 'Children are observed to spend long periods of time engaged in exploring materials through the senses. As they do so they make choices, show preferences, make decisions, express pleasure and develop hand eye coordination as they lift, throw, and draw materials to their mouths' (Santer, p.25). Children's sensory experiences also provide opportunities for emotional development. Seeing something beautiful, or smelling something delicious stirs our emotions. Significant experiences that link emotion and the senses can create a memory. Rebecca Austin explains that 'memories are based on association with scents or tactile sensations and emotional stimuli that can lead to deep seated learning' (p.19). Focussing on the Senses It is not difficult to use the learning potential provided by the senses in everyday interactions with children. Many practitioners already do so without labelling their approach as 'multi-sensory'. Here is a brief look at the five senses and how they can be supported on a daily basis. Sight By looking, children develop their own, personal window on the world. Sight enables children to develop hand-eye coordination, to make comparisons and to understand spatial relationships. Educationalist Audrey Curtis writes that 'children enjoy exploring materials of different shapes, textures and sizes, and need to be given the opportunity to create visual patterns and pictures' (p.91). Language development can be supported by asking children to describe what they see, to look closely at interesting things and to look only for specific shapes or colours (Austin). To look properly is a skill that children need to learn. Using cameras, or looking through picture frames cut out of card will encourage children to be visually aware of their environment. Sight can dominate the other senses, so games that involve closing your eyes or wearing a mask or blindfold can enhance a child's awareness of all the senses. Hearing A foetus in the womb can hear its mother's heartbeat and from birth babies respond to familiar sounds (Duffy). To make use of the learning potential of such an early ability, children need to be shown how to listen and to understand what they can hear. Curtis explains that 'good experiences with sounds and rhythms provide training in aural discrimination which will have positive value in other areas of learning' (p.96). Rhythm and sound activate memory and can be used to help children remember letters, words and numbers. Telling stories using different voices and lots of expression encourages children to really listen. Children can explore the sound properties of found objects and musical instruments indoors and out. They can listen to the rain on the windows or the traffic going by. Sounds can be recorded and played back, or sound maps can be made to focus children on what they can hear. Children can use computer software to change, sort and create sounds. Austin explains that 'the ultimate aim of this is to make children sound-aware so they enhance their familiarity with spaces they encounter everyday' (p.5). Touch Through touch, children learn about their bodies and about movement: 'The sense of touch teaches the child about their body, helping them to develop body awareness, and it arouses an interest in objects and people' (Mary Adossides, in Practical Preschool, issue 37). The touch of a gentle cuddle helps young children understand comfort and feeling cared for. As they touch things and use them, babies and children develop and improve hand-eye coordination. Using feely bags can help children to remember a variety of vocabulary, just as a tactile approach with sand or play dough can support letter formation. Children use touch as they discover books, lifting flaps, turning pages and stroking textures in feely books (Adossides). Almost every resource in a setting has the potential to be investigated through touch, from the more obvious cornflower or clay to placing soft blankets in the listening corner, digging in the garden, or wrapping different things in tissue paper and bubble wrap. Curtis explains that children should be given opportunities to explore materials: 'While manipulating the material the child is finding out what it is and what can be done with it' (p.88). The EYFS asks practitioners to reflect on whether they give children opportunities to explore things before they use them in a focussed way: 'Children who are allowed to play with resources and equipment before using them to solve a problem are more likely to solve the problem successfully' (card 4.1). Taste and Smell These senses can take second place to the other three, but Adossides warns against this: 'the importance of taste and smell to cognitive development and language acquisition is often overlooked. Smelling and mouthing, sucking and tasting are amongst the earliest ways infants explore their environment' (Practical Preschool, issue 37). A smell can be a powerful memory trigger, or calm us when we are stressed. A crying baby can be comforted by something that smells of mummy, and burning soothing oils in an oil burner can create a feeling of safety in the indoor space. Through taste and smell children display strong likes and dislikes, and can extend their vocabulary as they express their opinions. Growing herbs, bringing in vases of fragrant flowers, cooking with vegetables you have grown together and making food to celebrate different cultures all provide learning opportunities through taste and smell. The Multi-Sensory Learning Environment Having a multi-sensory approach to the learning environment in an early years setting is not the same as having a special sensory room or corner, or a sensory garden. It is about the way in which practitioners and children think about the space they are in all the time, the changes they make to it and the way they use the resources that are available. A new cohesion between indoor and outdoor spaces is expected by the EYFS. It requires that 'where possible link the indoor and outdoor environments so that children can move freely between them' (card 3.3). Of course, inside and outside provide different types of space. Inside can be snug, with quiet areas and cubby holes and messy places, while outside offers open areas with places to climb, run and be exuberant. The EYFS acknowledges and celebrates this difference: 'Create an indoor environment that is reassuring and comforting for all the children, while providing interest through novelty from time to time' and 'Being outdoors offers opportunities for doing things in different ways and on different scales than when indoors' (card 3.3). Adopting a multi-sensory awareness in a setting can help unite these two spaces for learning with one general approach. The smells from a herb garden can be brought inside in pots; a music and listening corner can be created outside with homemade wind chimes and pots and pans as instruments and logs to sit on; children can help to repaint a wall inside that is a colour inspired by the outdoor area; and a quiet outside cubby hole can be built using straw bales and blankets. Austin believes that children should have ownership of their environment. They should help to plan how it is arranged and contribute to maintaining it and keeping it tidy. This could be washing the paint pots or weeding the garden, planning what to plant in the vegetable pots, or what to have for snack time tomorrow. Austin explains the key is that the children are 'immersed in an environment through all their senses' (p.4). She writes that children 'need to be exposed to a range of experiences that engage curiosity, invite physical and sensory exploration and provide opportunities for them to evaluate and change their environment' (p.25). The EYFS also states the importance of simple and thoughtful resources: 'provide flexible resources that can be used in many different ways to facilitate children's play and exploration' (card 4.1). Links with other teaching and learning strategies A multi-sensory approach in an early years setting can be used to support the VAK theory that everyone has a preferred learning style, whether it is Visual (seeing), Auditory (hearing), or Kinesthetic (doing). The provision of a variety of sensory experiences creates opportunities for individual children to access activities in their own way. In the same way, a multi-sensory model works in conjunction with the theory of Brain-based learning. This focuses on how the brain learns by making connections between neurons as an experience is repeated. Children receive information about their environment through their senses again and again and pathways in their brain are strengthened. Santer (2007) writes that 'there is a link between exploration of objects and materials and the growth of the brain'. Brierly (1994) suggests that 'physical exploration of this sort is vital in building in the brain a model or understanding of the world' (p.26). An understanding of multi-sensory learning will also support Chris Athey's Schema theory. A schema is a pattern of behaviour that is linked and repeated by a child. For example, a child with an 'enveloping' schema will focus on wrapping and covering things and themselves in their play. Providing this child with a variety of fabric, blankets and wrapping paper all with different textures and patterns will support both their chosen schema and their sensory experience. Similarly, a child with a 'rotation' schema will be stimulated through the senses by watching wheels go round, painting spirals or taking photographs of wheels. Conclusion Adopting a multi-sensory approach to teaching and learning is not about digesting a new theory or making radical changes to early years practice. It is about understanding and enhancing the learning through the senses that is already taking place with all children in every kind of setting. References The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), published 2007, DfES Understanding Child Development: Linking Theory and Practice, Jennie Lindon, Hodder and Arnold, UK, 2005 To play or not to play? That is the question! , Janet Moyles, In The Early Years: A Reader, edited by Sandra Smidt, Routledge, London, 1998 Free Play in Early Childhood: A Literature Review, Joan Santer, Carol Griffiths, Deborah Goodall, National Children's Bureau, UK, 2007 The Value of Learning Through the Senses and The Multi-Sensory Approach to Learning, Mary Adossides, Practical Preschool, issue 37, 2003. Letting The Outside In: developing teaching and learning beyond the early years classroom, edited by Rebecca Austin, Trentham Books, UK, 2007 Outdoor Play in the Early Years: Management and Innovation, Helen Bilton, David Fulton Publications Ltd, 1998 Supporting Creativity and Imagination in the Early Years, 2nd Edition, Bernadette Duffy, Open University Press, UK, 2006 A Curriculum for the Preschool Child: Learning to Learn, 2nd edition, Audrey Curtis, Routledge, London, 1998
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