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What is Sensory Development?

Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt

Like most animals, humans rely on their five senses to experience the world around them. These senses--sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing--allow each individual to interpret his or her environment; this is called sensory processing. The growth of these senses is known as sensory development.

This process starts during gestation. From birth, a child can begin to explore each of his or her senses. All five senses are not yet completely developed; sight in particular is very limited following birth. It is during this period of infancy when childhood sensory development begins to progress.

A baby's taste sensory development begins with breast milk and grows from there.
A baby's taste sensory development begins with breast milk and grows from there.

As the sense of touch is key in the bonding process between baby and caregiver, touch sensory development is normally well-developed during infancy. Newborns often respond to touch in a similar fashion to adults. Babies vary in the amount of touch they can tolerate. During childhood, children often explore their sense of touch through their sensitive tongues, which is why so many children place objects in their mouths.

Exploration through the mouth is also a form of taste sensory development. Babies are typically born with a preference for mildly sweet tastes, such as breast milk. As they explore more tastes, their tolerance for various flavors develops.

Touch is a key component to bonding between a baby and his or her primary caregiver.
Touch is a key component to bonding between a baby and his or her primary caregiver.

Hearing sensory development is usually well underway within the womb. Fetuses can hear the mother's bodily noises as well as loud noises, such as car horns, outside her body. The most familiar sound to a baby is typically his or her mother's heartbeat, which often provides a soothing during moments of distress.

An infant's sense of smell develops within the womb as well. Fetuses recognize the smell of their mother's amniotic fluid. As with touch, a baby can recognize his or her mother through the sense of smell. The smells of other family members the baby comes into contact with daily also become familiar quickly, helping the baby identify different people.

Babies are typically born with a preference for mildly sweet tastes.
Babies are typically born with a preference for mildly sweet tastes.

Sight development occurs slowly at first. As a newborn, a baby can see objects within eight to ten inches (20 to 25 centimeters) of his or her face. The first sight a baby normally learns is the face of his or her primary caregiver. Though other colors remain vague during the first few weeks of life, white, black, and red are easily distinguished. As the infant grows, so does his or her range of sight.

The sense of smell develops before birth.
The sense of smell develops before birth.

Though sensory development is a natural process for most babies, sometimes complications can occur. This is known as sensory integration dysfunction. Various circumstances, such as prematurity, can lead to this dysfunction. Sensory integration dysfunction usually results in either too much or too little sensory input from his or her environment. Physical and occupational therapy can be used to help improve, or even correct, this condition.

Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt

A graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, Sara has a Master’s Degree in English, which she puts to use writing for TheHealthBoard and several magazines, websites, and nonprofit organizations. She has published her own novella, and has other literary projects currently in progress. Sara’s varied interests have also led her to teach children in Spain, tutor college students, run CPR and first aid classes, and organize student retreats.

Learn more...
Sara Schmidt
Sara Schmidt

A graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, Sara has a Master’s Degree in English, which she puts to use writing for TheHealthBoard and several magazines, websites, and nonprofit organizations. She has published her own novella, and has other literary projects currently in progress. Sara’s varied interests have also led her to teach children in Spain, tutor college students, run CPR and first aid classes, and organize student retreats.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

lluviaporos

@browncoat - I don't know about that. I think most cultures make allowances for child development stages. They expect children to go to bed earlier and to listen to different music and know they need to guard against babies putting different objects in their mouths.

Baby-speak, for example, is actually fairly universal, because people instinctively know that babies will listen to words that are simple and repetitive. You can try to talk like an adult to another adult at your baby but that's not really a sign of sophistication. It might even be a disadvantage.

browncoat

@pleonasm - I actually think it is largely a social thing though. I can remember refusing a few things when I was a kid, because I thought they smelled terrible (like Parmesan cheese, which I love now) but for the most part I just ate what my parents ate. In a lot of cultures they don't cater to the development of children like that and don't miss it either. The kids just eat what the parents do.

pleonasm

I actually find it quite interesting the way that taste develops in children and then matures in adults. There's a reason that kids don't want to eat vegetables and it is only partly because of social conditioning (i.e. when parents basically expect kids to not like vegetables and act as though they shouldn't and bring about the situation with their own actions).

Kids like mild and sweet flavors because they find other kinds of smells and tastes overwhelming. This is why you might have loved a particular flavor when you were a kid, but find it bland as an adult. It's part of children's development to prefer things like fish fingers and fries rather than the spicy or savory meals their parents eat, because those spices and herbs taste much stronger to a child.

It's because you start to lose taste buds as you get older and so you start to want more flavor in your food to compensate.

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    • A baby's taste sensory development begins with breast milk and grows from there.
      By: Kzenon
      A baby's taste sensory development begins with breast milk and grows from there.
    • Touch is a key component to bonding between a baby and his or her primary caregiver.
      By: Svetlana Fedoseeva
      Touch is a key component to bonding between a baby and his or her primary caregiver.
    • Babies are typically born with a preference for mildly sweet tastes.
      By: dgrilla
      Babies are typically born with a preference for mildly sweet tastes.
    • The sense of smell develops before birth.
      By: snaptitude
      The sense of smell develops before birth.
    • Encouraging exploration in a safe environment can enhance sensory development.
      By: Serg Zastavkin
      Encouraging exploration in a safe environment can enhance sensory development.
    • Humans begin developing their senses during gestation.
      By: coffeemill
      Humans begin developing their senses during gestation.
    • Occupational therapy often includes or complements sensory integration therapy.
      By: g215
      Occupational therapy often includes or complements sensory integration therapy.