Enhancing Smell in Toddlers

Descriptive Smell Words

• Your child needs to learn to identify and use the correct words for items she encounters -- this is part of how she labels and categorizes the world around her. Teach her descriptive words for the smells she comes across. As you run errands, do housework, prepare food or eat a meal, ask her to tell you what she smells. Help her out and offer her words related to smell, including spicy, sour, sweet, salty, bitter, savory, fresh, clean, rich, stinky or smoky.

Smell Game

• Test your toddler̵7;s sense of smell by playing a What̵7;s That Smell game. Place several small items, food pieces, spices or scents into baby food jars or on cotton balls. For instance, you can grab cinnamon sticks, apple cider vinegar, your perfume, coffee grounds, cracked peppercorns, fresh ginger, lemon juice, a dirty sock, rocks, a chamomile tea bag and a few drops of lavender essential oil. Blindfold your child with a scarf or bandana, have her smell each item and try to identify it.

Food Activity

• As you prepare food or during your next meal together, have your toddler smell each food item before tasting it. Have her close her eyes and inhale the scent deeply. Then ask her to take a bite, chew and talk about how the smell compares to the taste. Often the same words can be used to describe the taste and the smell, such as salty and sugary. Salt, sugar, bananas, strawberries, bell peppers, broccoli, vanilla bean, peppermint extract, cocoa powder and chicken work well for this activity.

Outdoor Identification

• The smell activities you plan for your toddler doesn̵7;t always have to be indoor adventure. Head outside with your kiddo so you two can get a fresh whiff of nature -- right after a light rain is a perfect time to get her sniffer outside. Walk around and smell the flowers, plants, trees and dirt. Ask her what else she smells. She might be able to identify the smell of rain on the concrete or road, too.