Exploring the senses of taste with young children: Multisensory discoveries of food

Offering children multiple occasions and settings to approach new or least-liked foods has value both from a taste development perspective as well as a pedagogical one. New food experiences in positive atmospheres foster pleasure, curiosity and willingness to interact with these ingredients in multiple manners, not only eating or tasting them. This qualitative case study reports 4 and 5-year-old children's articulation of their experiences in exploratory food ateliers at their preschool. During the study the children's ideas and perceptions about their sensory experiences with food were documented, while keeping the children at the center of their explorations, in line with the Reggio Emilia approach. Results indicate that the children reflected on changes in their own attitudes and taste toward least-liked foods, as well as including meta-reflections on complex phenomena such as multisensory perception, cross-modal correspondences and taste development. Thus, by promoting multiple multisensory explorations, the study suggests that children can become more open-minded and self-aware, broadening the spectrum of food experiences.