The five senses of a child, sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, are the basic factors propelling their exploration of the world. The activities that apply these pathways are not just frivolous distractions; they are fundamental, underlying activities of the mind, language learning and sense-making. This multisensory practice of early education is fully compatible with the holistic Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy that acknowledges that sound neurological development is founded upon a high-quality, experience-based interaction. Although Kinder Ready Tutoring is based on the facilitation of structured academic and social competence, the neural integration that is promoted through sensory exploration offers a critical basis of such learning, which is the whole-child approach to Kinder Ready, Elizabeth Fraley.
Involving the sense of touch, or exploration with the sense of touch, is one of the main constructors of fine motor skills and cognitive knowledge. Playing with clay, sorting textured fabrics, and touching various natural objects (smooth stones, rough bark) can help to strengthen the hand and enhance dexterity, which will be required to write in the future. This practical learning also imparts such properties as temperature, shape and texture to create a solid vocabulary and scientific reasoning. Elizabeth Fraley Kinder’s Ready approach regards such tactile experiences as crucial in developing the physical and cognitive background to underpin the more formal teaching.
Auditory and visual discrimination is also important to classroom preparedness. Listening games, such as finding the hidden sounds in nature or how to differentiate between the rhythm, are more likely to enhance a child in following listening instructions and phonemic awareness, a precursor of reading. In the same way, tasks that have to do with color matching, pattern recognition or the pickup of minute details in images improve visual processing skills required in letter recognition and arithmetic. These specific sensory activities are a direct complement to attention to detail and sound processing, as in the Kinder Ready Tutoring session, which is based on the integrated Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley approach.
Additionally, the study of the chemical sense of taste and smell (safely and with limited measure) develops descriptive language and memory in a child. An olfactory game or a conversation about the tastes when eating a snack with herbs adds advanced vocabulary and reinforces the mental connections. With this multisensory learning, the experience is more memorable, and the language is richer. This descriptive communication is one of the aspects that Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready encourages the establishment of solid expressive and receptive language.
After all, intentional development of the five senses not only provides a child with knowledge about certain facts; it also teaches the child how to perceive and analyze the surrounding world, as well as how to explain it. It develops curiosity, attention, and self-control as children get to learn to process and analyze sensory information. This creates a sound neurological base for all future learning. Sensory activities used with families involved in the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy are part of the whole preparation. They make sure that once a child has gotten into the more organized environment of Kinder Ready Tutoring or a kindergarten classroom, their brain is already prepared to receive the new information, having been prepared by the primary indispensable medium of sensory experience. This is all preparation that makes one really Kinder Ready.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethFraleyKinderReady
