This system has sensory receptors in the nose to pick up information about odors around us. This system helps create the flavors we taste in food and it is connected to our memories which can affect our mood.
This system helps with developing:
- Differentiating between thousands of different odors and
- Determining if they are dangerous (smoke), foul (expired food), pleasurable, strong, or faint
- Connecting affective terms to an experience (pleasant or aversive)
Some behaviors we may see due to sensory challenges within the olfactory system include:
- Trouble detecting strong odors
- smells in the room
- stinky, spoiling food
- Smoke
- Perfume
- Frequently smelling random items
- Overly sensitive to smells within their environment
A few activities that can be used to improve the olfactory system:
- Use the names of smells in conversation
- “These roses smell nice and fresh”
- “This cookie smells chocolatey”
- “The leftovers smell rotten, we’re not going to eat them”
- Play with smelling different items
- Scratch and sniff stickers
- Smelly markers
Essential oil diffuser