I am a sensory engagement and inclusion specialist, in my work at The Sensory Projects I look at how inexpensive resources can be used as sensory tools for inclusion and explore how understanding sensory processing can help us to better support those in our care. I deliver training nationally and internationally and can often be heard saying that I wish there was an easy way to distinguish between sensory and SENSORY. People are generally aware that engaging the senses when learning is useful, but there’s a big difference between putting out a box load of toys that were all marked ‘sensory’ in the catalogue and creating a SENSORY banquet for exploration.
In this series of articles I’m going to talk about the difference between sensory and SENSORY across different sensory systems and about the impact of sensory engagement work on people of all neurotypes who experience ability and disability.
This article focuses on smell, do you have a certain scent that reminds you of your Grandma, do you hate the smell of hospitals? Smell holds extraordinary emotional sway over us. We need to be mindful of how we use it in our settings to avoid emotional overload and promote joyful memories.
Here’s how to do smell in a little letter sensory way:
Smell: sensory
- Wear an extra spritz of your favourite perfume to work
- Plug in a synthetic air freshener to try and cover the smell of nappy changing
- Hand out scratch and sniff stickers
Why isn’t this capital letter sensory? Have you ever felt like you were getting a headache because someone’s perfume was so strong? Have you ever walked back into a room and remarked on the smell on walking back in, even though you hadn’t noticed it when you were in the room originally? Background smells are just that: background, they quickly go unnoticed. Having an environment thick with aromas can easily give folk a headache. And of course, little scratch and sniff stickers pack a puny scented punch.
We need to be careful with smell, it is the only sensory system processed by the limbic brain, the emotional brain, which means that whilst we can think the other senses we feel smell, it is emotive.
Wearing a strong perfume is demanding emotional work from people. We also need to be mindful of choice, when we offer a taste experience a child can choose whether to eat it or not, if we invite them to touch something again there is choice, but if we plug in a diffuser their choice is to smell or to not breathe and that is not a fair choice.
So how can we respectfully offer capital letter smell experiences?
Smell: SENSORY
- Stand a tough tray of mud and sticks and handfuls of torn up grass near the radiator to be explored.
- Create scent squirt bottles out of washed out drinks bottles
- Take the children on a smell walk!
Smell is the dissolving of particles in the environment in the wet nasal lining of the nose. There are more of these particles when things are warm – think of the heady aroma of summer – by putting the tough tray of natural resources near the radiator you will enhance its natural pong. Natural aromas are easier to handle than synthetic ones and less likely to give everyone a headache. Make sure water bottles are available or that everyone has had a good glug of water first, as hydration is key to getting the most out of aromatic experiences.
Scent squirt bottles are so much fun and offer the choice of smell exploration to people, rather than demanding it of them by making the only alternative stopping breathing. You need those drinks bottles that have the lift up lids: wash them out, dry and fill with something that will pack a strong aromatic punch: orange peel, herbs, peppermints. Screw the lids on tight. To access the smell children can lift the lid and squirt the scent towards their nose.
Smell walking is a fabulous activity developed by scent researcher Kate Maclean. She talks about smell catching and smell hunting, and thinking about back ground smells as well as particular scents that might pass you by. To do a smell walk, have a drink, encourage slow inward breath through the nose (not a quick sniff, you’ll never work out where the cat peed if you drag the scent particles past the receptors too fast) and shut off other forms of stimulation (you could try keeping quiet and closing eyes to focus on smell). To smell catch, you just stand still, close your eyes and figure out what you can smell. Try it inside and outside and spot the difference. To smell hunt. use your other senses to find smells, change heights, rub things between your palms to warm them, explore, adventure! We tend to think of foods as smelly but this is because we hold food beneath our nose, hold other things there too and you’ll discover new scents!
I said at the start of this article that smell is an emotional affair, which makes it an ideal sensory companion when looking to support children. In my next article I’ll explore some ways you might use smell to offer support to the children in your setting. Don’t forget this article is just one in what is turning into something of an encyclopaedia of sensory insight for your settings. Check back through the others for ideas around sight, touch, taste and smell, and look out for sound still to come!
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