Sensory Experience Reflection. The Connections Of Neurons

When we want to stimulate the child’s senses we start them with the sensory tables. Each table consists of a tub that stimulates a different sense. When you stimulate the senses you help to stimulate the child cognitively, and emotionally as well. This can be achieved through science experiments such as the one we did over the holiday with a pumpkin and what does it smell like and feel like on the first day what about before it is carved vs after it is carved. We do this with all the kids from ages 3 to school age.

As an early years practitioner you will recognise that children’s play is closely linked to their learning and development. Children learn in so many different ways but you will notice that they learn mainly through play. When children are able to do many different activity’s that allows them to lean but have fun at the same time thy will find what they are doing fun and will engage the children. It is important that when in you your setting you set up a variety of educational activity’s this way the children will be able to choose freely what they want to do.

In terms of understanding of the world the children used their senses to investigate objects and materials by used. The children also constructed letters with an object and adapted their work where necessary.

Explain the visual process, including the stimulus input, the structure of the eye, and the transduction of light energy.

This activity is developmentally appropriate for this age group because it teaches the children many things such as weight and properties of matter. It also teaches the children the smell and texture of the sand. This activity allows them to use different things such as buckets their hands the sand and any other item they mite want to use. As a teacher I would be able to facilitate the children through out

According to the textbook, brain based research states that child’s brain is two-and-a half times as active as an adult’s and it creates an estimated one trillion synapses during the first three years of infant’s life. In addition, young children have really powerful learning. They learn through quality experiences and relationships. There are some ideas that teachers of young children need to to keep in mind. From birth to age 4, teachers have to include all the senses in a child’s exploration in order for them to have a healthy and enriched environment. Children from age 4 to 8, teachers have to provide a lot of opportunities to use stories, explore ideas and master activities than using worksheets in order to have rich stimulating activities. In terms of all ages, teachers have to develop a curriculum that promotes collaboration, cooperation and teamwork.

Physical: To promote physical development, children will have many opportunities to engage in activities that will strengthen fine motor, gross motor and sensory skills. They will participate in art and craft activities that will allow them to refine the use of their hands and fingers for more precise movements and further develop their hand eye coordination. The children will have the opportunity to participate in several outdoor, large group gross motor activities. These activities are designed to improve coordination (when moving or standing still), balance, and spatial awareness during movement. There are also activities that will engage the children in tasting and touching to help further develop their sensory skills.

Some of the senses that are vital during the growth of the child are: hearing, vision, smelling and tasting, ability to speak and feeling pain; they are the basic improvements in the child’s mental growth, they help the child in the perception of the general occurrences in the world around the child. After the child have developed the basic senses to the major aspects of life that is when they will be able to develop permanent images of objects even if they are not there at the moment. The sensorimotor nerves of a child develops as the child make primitive movements, these improves the reflex response of a child (Piaget, & Inhelder, 2010).

Play represents very important part of childhood that offers children developmental benefits because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. It also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children that increase the strength of the relationship between the child and his parents. Experiential learning is learning through exploring, experiencing, creating, and discovering what 's around us. The science playground was full with games and activities, such as, there was a wooden box having holes from one side and glass from the other side, one person should put his hand in one of the holes and try to guess what is inside the hole and the other person can give hints to him. Also, there was another thing called “A Motion in a Dish”,

Learning is possible when children are provided a high-quality environment. Early childhood educators will set an environment that promotes curiosity and encourages children to explore their environment. Children are able to learn through hands on experiences. “Hands-on learning is the most effective way young children make sense of their environment and form their own understanding of how the world works” (Browne, 2013. P.130). I believe that children learn through play. “Play is a natural way for children around the world to express themselves and is a basic need of children throughout their school year” (Browne, 2013. P.132). We can effectively provide this environment by emphasizing on providing children a

Play is inevitable when it comes to children. Given the right environment and objects (of any sort), children will find a way to play. Jarvis, et al state that educators must offer inspiring, playful environments which include hands-on activities and interesting resources. This will empower children to educate themselves (2009). Along the same line, Wood and Attfield consider that an environment inclusive of varied resources will provide room for growth in their learning and will support the child’s “creativity, inventiveness and originally” (2005, p.231).

In addition to play promoting pleasure as well as physical activity, play forms the holistic growth in children’s development, or to put it in another way using Brown (2003) acronym, acknowledged as ‘SPICE’; play represents the ‘social interaction’; ‘physical activity’; ‘intellectual stimulation’; creative achievement and emotional stability, (with the addition of “compound flexibility”) in a child’s development. Compound flexibility is the idea that a child’s psychological development occurs using the relationship between his/her environment with the adaptability of the child himself. Thus the flexibility of surroundings and his/her adaptableness can provide children the means to explore; experiment and investigate (Brown, 2003, pp. 53-4). On the contrary, the absence of social interaction and physical activity through the means of play can inhibit children’s overall development and without the consistency of play children suffer a “chronic lack of sensory interaction with the world, [which leads to] a form of sensory deprivation” (Hughes, 2001, p.217 in Lester and Maudsley 2006).

Goal: To gain knowledge of letters of the alphabet through sensory play during small group time in the classroom.