The Sensory Systems in Detail
All information about the world comes to us through our sensory systems.
Sight | The Visual sense makes it possible for us to see in our world. It helps us to see and navigate around a room, recognise a familiar face and the subtle emotional expressions of others. It helps us to avoid the danger we can see (e.g. a rock thrown at us or a poisonous spider) |
Sound | The Auditory sense makes it possible for us to hear in our world. It helps us to hear the sounds of our teacher's and friend's voices and alerts us to danger that we cannot see. |
Touch | The tactile sense makes it possible for us to feel in our world. It helps us to find and recognise an object in the dark, recognise different textures and temperatures and protect us from pain. |
Smell | The olfactory sense makes it possible for us to smell in our world. It is closely linked with our emotions and memories, (e.g. the safe smell of a mother or father, or baking bread) and also protects us (e.g. to escape from fire or from eating rotten food). |
Taste | The gustatory sense makes it possible for us to taste our food. It is closely linked with our sense of smell. |
Movement | The Vestibular Sense is activated when our heads move through space, when our head changes position or when we see moving objects. It is highly reliant on gravity and makes it possible for us to recognise when we are moving and to co-ordinate our movements within the environment. It is responsible for organising our movements to either approach and grasp a "good thing" or to get out of "harm's way". |
Body Position | Proprioception is closely related to the vestibular sense and makes it possible for us to know where our body is in space and how our body parts are moving. In adults it allows us to skilfully move our arms and legs without looking at every movement as in writing, touch-typing and playing piano. It also allows us to adjust our body position quickly and automatically when we loose our balance or want to approach and grasp a "good thing" or to get out of "harm's way" |
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