Sensory experiences are pivotal to childhood. Wild Roots strives to provide sensory experiences of all types, from tactile to vestibular, senses allow us to develop understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Tactile
There is almost always at least one sensory bin filled with items encouraging discovery. Learning through tactile experiences allows children to understand object properties, understand concepts such as texture and temperature, as well as developing their fine motor skills.
Vestibular
This sense relates to children’s concept of their bodies and their relation to the ground. The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and contributes to our balance, movements, and our understanding of gravity
Children develop this sense through motions such spinning, swinging, sliding, climbing and dancing,
For some children it can also help for emotional regulation. We use rocking chairs, swings, and hammocks to help children recenter themselves.
Auditory
Learning to identify our different senses and figuring out how we can use them to identify things is a pivotal piece of childhood. Understanding of our auditory sense helps us discern the location of objects in space and segregate sounds in order to focus on what is relevant.
We use music, games, and exploration to encourage this. On nature walks we identify different sounds, morning meetings end with songs and shakers, children play musical instruments and we play a variety of music genres to expose children different sounds and instruments.
Our bodies are constantly telling us what we need and our interceptive sense is how we know. We don’t often think about these signals, when we are hungry we eat, when we are tired we rest, and when we are cold we put on a sweater. Children aren’t born understanding what their bodies are telling them.
As we develop it is important to understand our body’s needs. Everyday we are teaching the children what their body is saying and giving them the words to express it.
As they grow, children learn the empty feeling in the stomach is hunger, identifying when their energy drops and they need rest, or that goosebumps or shaking are our bodies saying we are cold.