Sensory Experience

Engaging with veg is one of the best possible ways for kids to develop a healthy relationship with them. Physically engaging through their senses and exploring how a veg smells, sounds, feels and looks can make it more likely they want to know how it tastes, too. Find out how you can try this simply at home.

Engaging through senses

If your child is struggling with trying new veg, exploring how that veg feels, looks, smells and sounds before tasting can make the process easier for everyone.

TastEd (short for Taste Education) is about encouraging children to use all five senses to explore food in a fun and joyful way. We have gathered some practical ways to do this sensory play at home below, and in some more everyday ways on our Talking About Veg page here.

Kim SMITH Msc.

Using sensory experiences at home is a simple way to take baby steps to encourage kids when trying a new or previously disliked vegetable in a low-pressure environment, making it more likely they will engage with it positively. We have got TastEd’s Kim Smith to guide you through sensory experiences for you and your child…

How will it help?

It breeds familiarity: Exploring veggies through your senses makes them less unknown and more approachable, giving kids something familiar to describe.

It leads to positive conversations: Using imaginative and descriptive language around a veg creates positive associations, shifting the focus from “it’s gross” to something more engaging.

It helps in understanding preferences: Listening to how your child describes veg helps you understand their likes and dislikes. Do they recoil at bitter-tasting veg or do they love sour flavours? Do they enjoy a good crunch or are they happiest when veg is cold but soft? The language they use will give you hints that can help you with what veg to try next.

It takes away the pressure: The first rule of sensory education is that you start by letting a child know two things: “You don’t have to try. And you don’t have to like.” This removes pressure, making them more likely to engage in other ways, like sniffing or touching.

It is playful: When a child is playing and having fun, they are more receptive to requests and are more likely to form positive associations. If they are having fun coming up with an over-the-top description for how a carrot looks, encourage them and laugh with them, and they will be more relaxed, feeling better about the suggestion of trying the veg later.

getting started

Golden rules: Always remind your child, “You don’t have to try, and you don’t have to like.” Encourage them to explore veggies through their senses—sniffing, licking, or touching is just as valuable as tasting. If they don’t like it, ask why (too crunchy, soft, loud, bitter?) and suggest trying it differently next time.

Focus on one sense: Explore veggies one sense at a time. For example, perhaps you found a great deal on carrots this week—have your child snap or bite raw vs. cooked carrots to see which sounds the loudest. Or use imagination when describing how a yellow pepper looks—maybe it looks like an umbrella or a freeze ray!

Always have an opportunity for tasting: Offer tasting: After exploring, offer a chance to taste the veg, perhaps even in different forms (raw, roasted, steamed). Remind them they don’t have to try or like it, and taste it together. If they say they don’t like it, ask them why.

Praise often: Celebrate their efforts—whether it’s imaginative descriptions, using new words, or trying by sniffing or licking.

Join in: Make it a shared experience—explore veggies together, share your preferences, and be open to trying even those you don’t like.

give it a go

Here are some simple TastEd sensory experiences you can try at home with your kids.
These should only take 10-15 minutes each and should be full of fun and praise.

For more TastEd activities go to www.tasteeducation.com

WHICH IS THE GREENEST?

Get hold of 2-5 types of green vegetables and sort them from “least green” to “greenest”.

Suggested veg: courgette, cucumber, green beans, peas, okra, green pepper, broccoli.

COMBINING FLAVOURS

Help your kids understand the different kinds of flavours there are (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and savoury), and that they can taste different when combined. Gather a few veg and foods with different flavours and see what their favourite combinations are.

Suggested veg: cherry tomatoes (sweet/sour), cucumber (sweet), red peppers (sweet), olives (salty), carrot (sweet), mushroom (savoury), basil (bitter/savoury), rocket (bitter), cooked butternut squash (sweet).

THE NOSE GAME

Use a strong flavour/smell like cinnamon and toss a fairly mild-tasting veg in it, then get kids to try tasting it while holding their nose, then try again without pinching noses. 80% of flavour is in the smell, so they’ll probably notice a huge difference in taste!

Suggested veg: carrot or cauliflower (and of course, cinnamon).

CRUNCHY, CRUNCHIER, CRUNCHIEST

Get hold of 2-5 types of veg with differing levels of “crunchiness” and get the kids to bite down (or snap if they don’t want to put them in their mouths) to sort by crunchiness. If you can find some, wearing earplugs or headphones while crunching can amplify the sound and make it more fun.

Suggested veg: mushrooms (soft), tomatoes (soft), cucumber (slightly crunchy), pepper (crunchy), carrots (super crunchy), celery (super crunchy).

FOOD DETECTIVES

Grab a (clean!!) pair of socks or several, and put a veg in each sock. See if the kids can guess what the veggie is just by feeling the outside of the sock (no peeking).

Suggested veg: whole sweetcorn, pepper, parsnips, sweet potato, okra, garlic. It’s quite nice to have some more unusual veg when doing this activity such as a small fennel bulb, or something interesting but that can fit in a sock and can be eaten raw.

Kim Smith

Kim Smith recently graduated from a Masters in food policy and has over 25 years experience working across the U.K. food industry. Covering a diverse range of roles, she has been a product developer for supermarkets, food service and food manufacturers as well as running farmers markets, food events, judged food awards and most recently taught food education in primary schools. A lifelong lover of food, she is the mother to 2 boys, and now works to improve primary school food education. She does this through her role as Co-Chair and Trustee at TastEd, a leading sensory food education charity, developing a curriculum based primary food education programme and continuing her academic research.

www.tasteeducation.com

‘TastEd (short for Taste Education) is a new way to encourage children to use all five senses to explore food in a fun and joyful way. More than a thousand schools and nurseries are already doing TastEd sessions but you can also do it at home with your own child’. www.tasteeducation.com

Ruth’s sensory guide

Sensory expert Ruth Platt one of the creators of TastEd shares her tips for engaging your child with each of these veg. Click the veg to watch her video.

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