Gustatory/Olfactory

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Imagine...you walk into your neighbours house and her house smells like wonderful baking, but after a few minutes in the house you cant smell the baking anymore. This is an example of your olfactory system in full swing.

Working with a child to calm a hyper-responsive gustatory/olfactory system, activities for a child avoiding gustatory/olfactory input
Therapeutic activities should include:
Sweet or mildly salty flavours or scents (Case-Smith, 1998)

Specific activity examples:
Suck Push Pops or other hard lollies
Smell & tell, try to identify smells
Playing with round objects, kick, squeeze, throw balls or balloons then try round food like Cheerios.

Arousing a hypo-responsive gustatory/olfactory system or activities for a child seeking gustatory/olfactory input
Therapeutic activities should include:
Sour, bitter, spicy or smokey flavours or scents (Case-Smith, 1998)

Specific activity examples:
Lemonade in a drink bottle
Sour lollies or Big Red chewing gum
Spices
Taste & tell, lots of different smells, tastes and textures on a plate, e.g. raw onion, mustard and cornflakes

Case-Smith, J. (1998). Pediatric occupational therapy and early intervention (2nd ed.). Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Kranowitz, C. S. (2003). The out-of-sync child has fun. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.