Taste Sensory Activities for Babies 6-12 Months

Sensory Activities for Babies

August 23, 2023

Parents of children with hearing loss often find themselves grappling with numerous questions on how to support their child in being comfortable in their environment. One aspect that is often overlooked is the use of sensory play, particularly taste sensory activities.

Taste sensory activities play an important role in stimulating children’s taste buds and helping them understand and appreciate various flavors.

This type of sensory play can be particularly beneficial for children with hearing loss because it encourages the exploration of other senses.

Engaging the sense of taste can also be a fun and effective way to enhance communication skills. Babies can learn to describe different flavors, textures, and learn the words for different food items!

With these taste sensory activities, not only can children with hearing loss improve their understanding of the world around them, but also foster a love for different types of foods. This enhances their overall growth and development.

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of taste sensory activities for children with hearing loss and provide some fun activities that parents can do with their child to incorporate this type of sensory play into their daily routine.

Taste Sensory Activities

What babies and kids don’t love a good snack?

At my house the kids are always asking for snacks and food. And it started from the time that my kids were close to 12 months old!

Most people don’t know this, but tasting is a huge sensory experience for babies! Babies 6-12 months are just getting teeth and interested in trying new foods other than milk.

This is the perfect time to introduce your little one to different foods because they are so willing to try new things!

You can create a simple meal time into a sensory experience for your baby by incorporating foods with different flavors and textures into their meal time.

Also, you can add foods of different colors to make their plate colorful to look at!

Other than eating, there are also some real benefits to sensory play, which I outline below.

Enhances Socialization Skills

Incorporating taste sensory activities into your child’s daily routine can have an impact on their socialization skills.

Engaging in activities such as bakin together or eating a flavorful meal together provides you and your baby an opportunity for bonding time. It also teaches your child valuable social skills.

a father holds his baby and eats with his other baby at the table for a taste sensory activity

Through these activities, you baby learns the importance of taking turns, sharing, and communicating effectively with others.

By nurturing these skills from an early age, you can help your child develop into a well-rounded individual with strong social and independent abilities.

Develops Fine Motor Skills

Taste sensory activities, such as exploring different flavors and textures, often involve the use of small muscle movements.

These movements, like using a spoon to scoop and stir or picking up small food items, can help develop and refine fine motor skills.

Engaging in activities like kneading dough or using a butter knife to spread icing enhances hand-eye coordination and increases your baby’s grip strength.

When you engage your baby into the daily set up of preparing and eating a meal, you also help them develop a variety of muscle groups to get stronger!

Encourages Exploration and Creativity

Through engaging taste sensory activities, children are not only encouraged to try new foods but also to explore a wide range of tastes and textures.

By embarking on this culinary adventure, children can open their minds to delightful new experiences and unleash their boundless creativity.

a baby girl plays with a pretend kitchen

I mean, have you ever seen the things that kids put ketchup on?

Even though we might cringe a little bit at their food creations, it’s an outlet by which babies and young kids can explore their creativity and decide what tastes should go together or not.

Helps with Memory and Learning

Engaging in taste sensory activities can significantly contribute to enhancing memory and learning capabilities.

For instance, partaking in activities such as baking a cake together not only provides an opportunity to follow step-by-step instructions but also aids in the development of essential sequencing skills.

The concept of sequencing, or following directions step-by-step is also an important speech therapy concept. You can practice speech therapy in your daily routine by helping your baby and toddler follow easy step-by-step directions to prepare and activity or prepare a snack.

Moreover, these activities offer children a unique chance to explore diverse cultural traditions and cuisines. This gives them a broader understanding and appreciation of the world that surrounds them.

easy sensory activities

Incorporating taste sensory activities into your child’s routine is easy and fun. Here are some activities to get you started that you can easily and quickly make or incorporate into your regular meal time routine:

Fruit Salad Making: Gather a variety of fruits and let your child chop and mix them to create a delicious and nutritious fruit salad.
Add new foods to their meals: This could be through themed tasting days where you focus on a specific color, type of food, or cuisine. For instance, you could have a “green day” where you introduce green vegetables and fruits to your child.

You can even help your child learn about different vegetables and how they are grown with this montessori wooden farm harvest game.

Baking Cookies: Let your child help in measuring the ingredients, mixing the dough, and decorating the cookies.

Get your baby interested in cooking with this fun mini sink and play kitchen! It fits in your home because it doesn’t take up a lot of space, and will let you baby imagine and imitate your cooking!

Homemade Pizza: Encourage your child to spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese, and add toppings to their homemade pizza.
Herb Sensory Bin: Create a sensory bin with various edible herbs and spices. Let your child smell and taste each one and discuss the differences.
Vegetable or fruit Stamping: Cut different vegetables or fruits (like apples) in half and let your child stamp them in non toxic paint and stamp it onto a piece of paper. You can eat the leftover food that you didn’t stamp! Please note, don’t let your child eat the food that was stamped in the paint.

Here is some taste safe finger paint for babies that is a veggie based powder. It’s completely edible and you don’t have to worry if you baby sticks their fingers in their mouths (as they will do!)

Ice Cream Tasting: Set up a mini ice cream parlor at home with different flavors and toppings.
Smoothie Creation: Let your child choose and blend together their favorite fruits for a healthy smoothie.
Salty vs. Sweet: Set up a tasting station with salty and sweet snacks. Watch as your baby responds to the salty or the sweet snacks.
Taste safe Sensory Bin: Add a sensory bin with cheerios or other favorite cereal for a taste safe sensory bin
Jello cups: Make jello in a bowl and allow your child to stick animal crackers in it, making a fun and exciting play activity

To help your kids understand taste sensory, here is a fun board book that focuses on taste sensory for babies!