How do the senses affect a child's development?

The baby's senses are formed and developed right from the fetal stage. Sensory development plays an extremely important role because it affects both the physical and mental development of children in later stages. Exercises to develop children's senses are also interested and widely introduced to parents.

Children as well as adults have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are the tools that babies use to reach and understand their surroundings.
Everything that babies experience through their senses provides them with a constant stream of information stored in the brain. As they grow and develop, they use that information to build a picture of the world around them. Even the simplest things can help children make sense of their young world.
For example, notice how many senses are active when you hold your baby. Children can see their parents' faces and hear their voices. Babies can also feel their parents' touch and sense of gentle movement, and can also smell their parents' scents. All of these feelings send messages to the child's brain and help him learn.

A baby's senses begin to develop very early in pregnancy. During the first trimester, taste, smell, and touch receptors begin to form. Sensory receptors appear first around the mouth and cheeks, and then spread to the rest of the body.
Taste buds and olfactory receptors are also forming during the first trimester. By the time a baby is born, he or she can hear, smell, taste and is very sensitive to touch. Babies can also see, although vision is very blurry.
Newborns cannot yet comprehend these new sensory experiences. The bundles of nerve tissue that carry information from a child's sensory receptors to the brain, called neural pathways, are not yet mature enough.
The key to helping neural pathways mature is using them. The more they are used, the more they grow and the more connections they make. So the more experiences a child has, the more likely his brain is to make those connections. Over time, children can build an understanding of the world around them and begin to use it to guide how they think and behave.

From the moment a baby is born, he or she will use his senses to continue the bonding process that began in the womb. Children are used to the sound of their parents' voices and will love hearing you coo and talk to them.
The baby's senses are ready to recognize the unique smell of its parents, with which the baby is familiar even in the womb. One study has shown that skin-to-skin contact for at least 50 minutes right after birth helps babies recognize their mothers by smell alone. A baby's touch can also help bond with parents in the early days after birth. Holding the baby on the chest, skin to skin, helps the baby calm down and stabilize the heart rate.
In fact, touching can make both parent and child feel happier and more comfortable. These moments of tenderness and love cause the hormone oxytocin or the “love hormone” to be released. Oxytocin can encourage or reinforce the feelings of closeness that come with attachment.
Baby massage can help build this bond between parent and child. Massage uses many of the baby's senses, not just touch. Children can see their parents' faces, hear their voices, and smell their unique scents. All of these sensory experiences help you and your baby build a special bond.

Children use their senses to find the food they need to grow. A few minutes after being born, babies show a preference for the smell of breast milk. Newborns may even turn their heads and move toward the breast to feed themselves.
Children's taste buds are also very sensitive. In fact, babies may have a wider distribution of taste around their mouths than adults! During the first trimester, babies can distinguish between sweet and bitter flavors, and they show a marked preference for sweetness. It's no surprise that breast milk is naturally sweet.
Touch can also contribute to a baby's development, especially if the baby was born prematurely. Premature babies tend to gain weight faster and go home sooner if they get massages while in the NICU.
As babies begin to eat solid foods, their preferences for certain flavors may be influenced by what you ate during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Baby will continue to use all of her senses as she discovers new tastes, places, sounds and textures that come from a more varied diet.
Children will supplement what they already know about the food and drink that the mother gives them by examining it closely. Rolling peas, shaking a glass of water, squeezing pasta, and occasionally putting something in his mouth may seem like a quick way to make a mess, but for your child, it's a connected skill. Concerning the senses!

All senses come into play as children learn about the physical world around them. In the beginning, the child's world is a jumble of overlapping sensations - touch, light, smell, taste, and sound. But within a few weeks, the baby's neural pathways begin to develop. People, objects, and events begin to form in the child's mind.
Newborns use their sense of touch to learn about shapes and textures of things. During the first few months, your baby's fingers and hands aren't enough to help him do this, so he can use his whole mouth.
A baby's mouth has more nerve endings per square inch than any other part of the body. Children can discover many letters by sucking and sucking on a toy. In other words, this is why babies put almost anything in their mouths!
As a child's eyesight improves, hand-eye coordination begins to develop. At 6 to 8 weeks old, babies will move their head and eyes to follow an object. At about 3 months old, babies can look at an object that they are holding in their hands.
By 4 to 5 months, your baby's eyesight has developed enough for him to understand distances, allowing him to reach out and grab his toys. This new skill opens up a whole new world of exploration.
As children grow, they seek out new sensory experiences that help promote their development. Many children's toys are designed to encourage learning, but everyday activities also nurture a child's fledgling brain.
A cup for pouring and scooping water in the bath exercises fine motor skills and teaches children about fluids and gravity. A trip to the park filled with sounds, sights, smells and textures provides plenty of sensory stimulation while allowing children to practice new motor skills.

The senses play an important role in helping children learn to communicate. Even before birth, babies already know the sound of their parents' voices and can recognize the voices of people or any siblings.
After birth, babies will begin to hone their listening skills by turning to familiar sounds. By 3 months, your baby can look directly at you when he hears your voice. The child may start mumbling or trying to talk again.
Not all communication takes place verbally, so sight also plays an important role. Your baby learns to read your face and connect it to your voice very early on. At 4 months, babies will expect speech sounds coming from a person to match their facial expressions. Children may look confused and upset if they don't.
As children grow and learn to talk, sensory experiences help them build vocabulary. Words like smooth, rough, slimy, and soft are almost impossible for children to understand without experiencing them for themselves.
A child's senses affect every aspect of a child's daily life and development. All babies develop at their own pace, but if parents are concerned about any of their babies' senses or their ability to cope with sensory stimulation, talk to their doctor. A child's doctor can also help if parents feel they can't give their child the sensory experiences they need.
For children to be healthy and develop well, it is necessary to have a nutritious diet in terms of quantity and quality balance. If children are not provided with adequate and balanced nutrients, it will lead to diseases of excess or lack of nutrients, which adversely affect the comprehensive development of children in terms of physical, mental and motor skills.
Parents should supplement their children with supportive products containing lysine, essential micro-minerals and vitamins such as zinc, chromium, selenium, and B vitamins to help fully meet their child's nutritional needs. At the same time, these essential vitamins also support digestion, enhance nutrient absorption, help improve anorexia, and help children eat well.
Parents can learn more:
Signs of zinc deficiency in children
Micronutrient deficiency and failure to gain weight in children
Please regularly visit Vinmec.com website and update useful information to take care of your child. Take care of the baby and the whole family.

Reference source: babycenter.com