Perceptual Development and the Five Senses

Introduction
Perceptual development involves how infants and toddlers understand sensory inputs like
sights, sounds, and textures. During early years, children use their senses to explore and
form neural connections, aiding their cognitive, language, motor, and socio-emotional
development (Garvis et al., 2019). Sensory processing influences their comfort, exploration,
and interactions (Zero to Three, 2019). Thus, early childhood environments should offer
intentional sensory experiences to support this growth.

Teaching Competencies and Skills Required
To effectively support perceptual development in infants and toddlers, educators must
demonstrate the following teaching skills and dispositions:
● Sensory-Aware Planning: Design environments and routines that incorporate a
range of safe sensory materials and experiences (Arthur et al., 2024).
● Observation and Interpretation: Closely observe how individual children respond to
different sensory inputs and adapt accordingly, particularly for those with sensory
sensitivities or delays (Kaywork, 2020).
● Intentional Language Use: Use rich, descriptive language during sensory activities
to connect language with sensory experience (e.g., “That feels squishy!”).
● Co-regulation and Emotional Support: Support children’s emotional responses to
sensory input by offering comfort and scaffolding, especially when experiences are
overwhelming or unfamiliar.
● Inclusive and Individualised Practice: Recognise that each child may process
sensory stimuli differently; respond to neurodiverse sensory needs with personalised
strategies (ACECQA, 2022).

Authentic Curriculum Provision and Learning Opportunities
Perceptual development is fostered through sensory, play-based experiences across the
curriculum:
- Art: Finger painting and texture collage enhance visual and tactile skills.
- Movement and Music: Dancing and tapping instruments improve auditory
discrimination.
- Drama and Puppetry: Sensory storytelling with props supports visual and tactile
recognition.
- Science: Scent jars and nature walks explore smell and cause-effect relationships.
- Technologies: Light boxes and soundboards provide interactive sensory input.
- Mathematics and Numeracy: Sorting by colour and texture promotes perceptual
categorisation.
- Humanities and Social Sciences: Cultural foods and music enhance sensory and
cultural awareness.

Three Original Learning Opportunities

1. Scent and Sound Discovery Bottles; For 0-12-month-old babies, sensory bottles a safe,
interesting, and play way to explain emotions; it is all about the herbs, rattles, and glitter.
They model sensory exploration and make connections with science, technologies, and
language development using facial descriptors and by naming attributes, supporting infants
to explore with their senses.
2. Texture Trail Walk; for 12- 24months this activity  helps develop your child’s tactile
perception, gross motor coordination and use of descriptive language. Teachers guide
young toddlers barefoot along different textured paths, encouraging them to talk about what
they feel. This activity combines aspects of art, movement and music, language and literacy,
and mathematics and numeracy. It helps introduce texture-related vocabulary and offers
support for comparing materials by size, shape and feel.
3. Five Senses Café; The sensory experience is heightened by the imagination in this
pretend café for ages 2–3 years. Connected curriculum areas: Drama and puppetry,
Humanities and social sciences, Language and literacy, STEAM Educators guide
discussions and storytelling to consider food properties and cultural diversity.

Teaching Resources 

SONGS

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" Phonological awareness and social language develop through repetitive, rhythmic, interactive singing with actions, which promote early literacy and cooperative communication.

RHYMES

"Pat-a-Cake Rhyme" With rhythmic clapping and name recognition, this rhyme builds early phonemic awareness, encourages letter recognition (particularly the child’s own first letter) and aids turn-taking and interaction.

BOOK

"Who Said Beep? "By Yi-Hsuan Wu Based on sounds produced by cars and other vehicles, each interactive passage evokes the animal response, aide memorise, to enhance auditory discrimination, voice, and prediction- Providing the first steps in emergent reading based on play literacy.

MOVEMENT ACTIVITY 

"Sleeping Bunny "Movement Song This game encourages self-regulation and listening skills as you guide your little one back and forth between a calm state and an active state and helps promote vocabulary words around movement and the expression of emotions.

"Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" As this song combines language with gross motor movement, this action song builds body part vocabulary, listening skills, and coordination while reinforcing physical awareness and verbal comprehension through repetition.

"Hickory Dickory Dock "This rhyme helps children learn about sequencing and the passage of time, while it also encourages wordplay, sound-symbol association, and memory skills, all important components of emergent literacy.

Beci Orpin, "Moving Your Body" Pairing action words with illustrations in this book encourages language and physical development at the same time, as children follow simple instructions to learn verbs and connect words and movement.