How sensory experiences promote your child's development

perception

Promoting the perception of preschool children

Perception plays a crucial role in a child's development. Imagine your child seeing a rainbow, hearing a dog bark, feeling the smooth skin of an apple or the loving kiss on the cheek. Sensory experiences are key to developing all important abilities such as language, memory, concentration, endurance, movement, and social behavior. Active experience is at the centre of their development. Children learn with all their senses, experiencing their environment through sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Engaging in playful activities such as puzzles enhances spatial awareness and fine motor skills, while building blocks help understand size, shape, and balance. Kneading stimulates tactile perception and creativity. Walks in the park foster curiosity and the discovery of their surroundings, and reading stories aloud promotes attentive listening and stimulates the imagination. Visiting a playground allows children to use their whole body, developing an awareness of their posture, movement, and balance as they climb, slide, swing and balance. Provide your child with daily experiences that stimulate their senses through active engagement, thus supporting their holistic development. It is also important to watch for signs of perceptual problems, such as delayed motor development, sound sensitivity, or avoidance of activities like kneading and coloring. Early recognition and targeted support of such difficulties will prepare your child for school and life in the best possible way.

Mother and son build together with wooden blocks.

A smiling boy in a striped shirt against a blue background.

Support activities

The development of perception is a central component of child development. Games such as ›Kommando Pimperle‹, for example, support auditory perception and concentration by requiring quick and attentive listening. Reading stories aloud also promotes auditory perception and has a positive effect on language development, as children expand their vocabulary and improve their grammar and sentence structure through attentive listening.

A girl in a white shirt stretches out her hands.

Changing body posture

This game is very popular with children and playfully strengthens their observation skills. It encourages them to look closely and notice even the smallest changes in body posture. Those who learn to observe carefully see more and discover everyday life like little detectives. Start by taking on a specific posture such as stretching out your left hand and tilting your head down. Your child looks carefully at your posture. Then you give a signal: your child either turns around or closes their eyes. While they’re not looking, you change one small detail, such as stretching out your right hand instead of the left. Then your child turns back to you and tries to figure out what has changed. If your little detective doesn’t spot the change, a small hint from you will surely help them get back on track. After three or four rounds, switch roles. Now your child comes up with a posture, and it’s your turn to look carefully. Have fun taking a break from everyday life and sharing some laughter together.

A colorful clock with red and blue numbers.

Guess back pictures

This perceptual game, in which you draw simple pictures on your child's back, is always a lot of fun. It also promotes language skills and your child's cognitive development. Introduce this game as a little ritual before bedtime, for example. Use your finger to draw a simple image, such as a sun or a clock, on your child's back. The child's task is to guess what object you have drawn. Assist your child in guessing by offering clues about the object's shape, color, function, or typical location. Letters or numbers your child already knows can also be written and guessed on the back. Then switch roles and the child draws something on your back. Drawing on the back is an entertaining game and a welcome opportunity to relax together.

A girl waves with one hand in front of a yellow background.

Command Pimperle

»Command Pimperle« is a cheerful children's game suitable for two or more players. It promotes auditory perception and responsiveness by challenging players to attentively listen, swiftly differentiate between commands, and respond appropriately. The players sit around a table while an adult issues commands. Each command involves a specific hand movement that all players execute simultaneously. The game begins with all players tapping the table edge alternately with their index fingers. The game leader repeatedly says: »Command Pimperle, Command Pimperle, Command Pimperle ...« and then adds a command, such as »... all hands wave!« Then, all players quickly wave one hand.It is crucial that commands are followed only when the game leader fully states »Command Pimperle.« If he omits ›Pimperle‹ and simply says »Command, all hands wave!«, the players must keep their hands down and continue tapping their index fingers on the table edge. The game leader varies the number of repetitions of ›Command Pimperle‹ by saying it three, four or five times before adding a new command. The game leader also increases the tension, adds excitement by occasionally omitting the word ›Pimperle‹ while still performing the hand movement himself. This creates confusion and enhances the fun, especially as he calls the commands more rapidly.

Command Pimperle, Command Pimperle, Command Pimperle, all hands ...

... wave! Players wave with one hand.
... cover your eyes! Players cover their eyes with their hands.
... go up! Players raise their hands above their heads.
... lie flat on the table! Players lay their hands flat on the table surface.
... tap their fingers on the table! Players move their fingers as if playing the piano.
... slap flat on the table! Players place their hands flat on the table and lightly tap.
... go like feet! Players move their hands on the tabletop as if they were walking.
... show a heart! Players form a heart with both hands.
... grow! Players slowly move their hands upwards.
... hide under the table! Players move their hands under the table.
... form bunny ears! Players form bunny ears above their heads.
... blow wind! Players form a circle with both hands and blow through it.
... turn in a circle! Players extend their hands forward and rotate them clockwise.
... form a wave! Players extend their hands forward and wave them.
... fidget in the air! Players fidget their hands back and forth in the air.

All birds fly high

The popular game »All birds fly high« is a fun and quick activity to enjoy after a meal or anytime in between. It supports important skills like attention, concentration, quick reactions and listening. Everyone sits at a table and taps their fingertips lightly on the tabletop. The game begins when the leader calls: »All birds fly high!« Everyone quickly raises their hands into the air. Then the leader names more animals, some that can fly and some that cannot. For example: »All dogs fly high!« In this case, hands stay down. »All butterflies fly high!« Now the hands go up again. The challenge for the child is to quickly decide whether the animal can fly or not. To build excitement, the game leader gradually increases the pace of the announcements. This brings plenty of fun for both children and adults.

Letter puzzle

Some children show a great interest in letters even before they start school. With a letter puzzle, they learn to recognize letter shapes in a playful way. To do this, use cardboard cards measuring 5 cm x 5 cm and write capital letters on them. To avoid overwhelming the child, select only a few letters of the alphabet at first. Start with the letters in your child’s name to simultaneously promote skills in writing their own name. Cut the cards diagonally and straight across to create various puzzle pieces. These different cuts increase the level of difficulty and encourage visual perception. Children must look closely to recognize the correct pieces and put them together. The child then assembles the mixed puzzle pieces to form the individual letters.

M for Melon
Encourage your child to find words that begin with these letters, such as ›M for melon‹, ›A for apple‹ or ›L for lamp‹. Praise your child for every word they find. Ensure that you pronounce letters such as ›M‹, ›N‹ or ›L‹ as the sounds [m], [n] or [l], not as [em], [en] or [el]. This approach helps your child learn the correct pronunciation of sounds, which will be used later in their initial lessons. By promoting playful activities like recognizing and matching sounds to letters, you actively support the development of your child's phonological awareness, a key skill for acquiring written language and early reading.

Color search game

The game »I spy with my little eye« brings children a lot of joy and helps them improve their visual perception while playfully learning colors. Confidently identifying the colors red, yellow, blue, green, and brown can help your child transition into school more easily. For example, after dinner, take a few minutes with your child before clearing the table. Secretly choose an object or a piece of food in the kitchen, such as a yellow plate, and say: »I spy with my little eye something yellow.« Alternatively, you could say: »I spy something, and it’s yellow.« The child tries to guess the yellow plate by naming all the yellow objects they can see in the kitchen. Once the child has guessed the yellow plate, they can choose a colored object for you to guess. This game can also be played using other characteristics, such as: »I spy with my little eye something wooden and square.« It helps expand your child’s vocabulary and can be played not only indoors but also outdoors. Give it a try and have fun playing this search game together!

Copyright for content and images
Our content is protected by copyright. You are welcome to share it by providing a link to our website, so others can read the content directly on our site. You are allowed to use the headline or a few words of introduction to refer to the content. Copying full texts, sections, or images, as well as unauthorized posting or use without permission, is not allowed. Please respect the effort that goes into our content. Violations can be tracked and legally pursued using modern technologies, including AI.