Exploring Sensory Memory
🌿 Introduction
What if we could see, hear, and feel memories as vividly as if they were real? These exercises awaken children’s sensory memory. They lay the foundation for mental visualization, useful in many learning situations.
💡 Objectives
👉 Reactivate sensory memories
👉 Develop the ability to visualize mentally using the five senses
👉 Strengthen focus, attention, and memory through short, progressive exercises
👦🏻 Target age: 6–12 years
⏰ Duration: 5 to 10 minutes per session, on a regular basis.
A short but recurring ritual supports integration and progress.
🔁 Exercise progression
The activities follow three main stages:
- Remembering with the senses: reactivating familiar memories (the taste of a fruit, the texture of a fabric, a known smell…).
- Transforming a real sensation into a mental image: handling, tasting, listening, then mentally recalling what was just experienced.
- Creating a “mental movie”: assembling perceptions to form a scene, a memory, or a complete imaginary action.
Each stage expands on the previous one. It is important to move forward gradually, at each child’s pace.
🌈 Sensory approach
These exercises engage the five senses and body perception (kinesthesia). Each child perceives differently: some “see” better, others “hear,” “smell,” or “feel” more strongly.
This diversity is a richness: it allows each child to draw on their natural sensitivity while developing other channels.
👨🏫 Role of the facilitator
The facilitator does not expect precise or verbal answers. They invite each child to do the exercise silently, in their head, and to indicate whether they managed to perceive it (yes, a little, not at all).
Eyes may be closed or open, depending on comfort.
The facilitator does the exercises at the same time as the children: this reinforces engagement and creates a shared dynamic.
🔢 Skills developed
These activities also contribute to fundamental learning, especially in mathematics:
- 🧩 Mental representation of quantities, shapes, figures (useful in geometry, numeration)
- 🧭 Spatial orientation (mental projection, spatial awareness)
- 🧠 Working memory (useful for problem solving)
- 🔁 Anticipation and logical reasoning (connecting what is perceived with what is imagined)
Acknowledgments:
This document was created with the valuable contribution of Hélène Loup, storyteller and trainer, whose experience enriched the design of these exercises.