Welcome to Synap2it! Learning Toolbox! We’re so glad you found us! 

We're your hosts, Sophia Guzman and Renee Anderson with Synap2it Learning Development Center.

We are here to provide families like you with tools to give your students an edge on their learning, because when students connect to learning, everyone wins! 

Today we will covered the 5 essential senses for learning, what it can look like if these senses are underdeveloped, and what you can do as a parent, family member, or teacher to help a student develop these abilities. 

As you will see, developing these 5 essential senses is paramount to helping the mind and the body work together in order to learn more effectively long term, regardless of the curriculum. 

When we think about senses, we usually think about our 5 senses - touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. However, did you know that there are 5 additional senses that are essential for learning? It’s true! In fact, when these senses are underdeveloped a student may have difficulty in school. 

So what are these senses, and how do you know if your child needs to develop them further? Great question! There are a few key things you may notice when these senses could be impacting your child’s performance in school.

As a parent  few things you may be noticing

• Homework taking longer than it should
• Headaches or tired eyes after doing near-point work (explain near-point work)
• Trouble following directions/completing work
• Disorganization

We’re going to share some terms with you today that may sound a little technical, but Renee is going to help us understand these terms a little better with some examples, so stick with us as we share how each of these senses can impact your child’s learning and what you can do. 

These concepts were established by Dr. A Jean Ayres, based on earlier investigations by Dr. Marianne Frostig. If you want to know more, visit the footnotes in the description.

...Listen to the podcast to hear the rest of our facts!

Although a complete screening is the best approach to get a full picture of what challenges a student is having and helping them succeed in school, there are other things you can do to help build these abilities on your own. Activities that require symmetry such as:

• Building symmetrical shapes with blocks or legos
• Individual sports activities such as gymnastics, TaeKwonDo, or other martial arts.
• Walking in a straight line heel to toe, balancing as if on a tightrope.

Thank you so much for joining us today! We hope that today's episode gave you a few more tools to help your students gain an edge on learning. You are not alone in searching for additional resources to provide for your students. If anything in today's episode resonated with you, be sure and SUBSCRIBE to the podcast so you don't miss any of our future episodes! Also, we would love it if you would take 1 minute and write us a quick review! Writing a review helps more parents like you find this podcast and help their students reach their full potential.

You can also get more resources and find out more about what we do and how we can help you at www.synap2it.com or on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube simply by searching Synap2it in the search bar.

Episode resources:
-Ayres, A.J. (1979). Sensory Integration and the child. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
-Frostig, M. & Horne, D. (1964) The Frostig program for the development of visual perception. Chicago: Follet Educational.
-Hannaford, C. (1995). Smart moves: Why learning is not all in your head. Arlington, VA: Great Ocean.