Our Sense of Smell

Sensory integration

﻿In this lesson, we are going to focus on the sense of smell, and we're also going to explore our breathing. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people, and their families. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out at home or in school. This information is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources which have been given by your child's school or therapist. If you have any questions or would like help tailoring this to your child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. Our sense of smell helps us to breathe. Our nostrils, hair, and nasal passageways help filter to all the allergens and foreign bodies that come into from when we breathe. And it's therefore better to try and breathe through your nose rather than your mouth, because the air is more filtered. The moisture inside your nose also helps to create warmth, and the moist air is easier for your lungs to process the air that you breathe in. And then another big function for our nose is our sense of smell. So let's just have a look at how awesome this is. People can detect at least 1 trillion distinct things. My goodness. 1 trillion different smells is what your brain can figure out. That is just amazing. It's really mind-blowing. The other thing that is really interesting, a little fun fact, is we remember smells for much longer than we remember sight, sounds, tastes, or feelings. And good smells help to make us feel happy. So our sense of smell is really interesting and an awesome, awesome sensory system. Pause the video here to complete your activity. What is your favourite memory? Think back. Where did you go to? What did you do? Who was there? Can you remember how it smelled? For me, it's often going to the sea where my grandparents lived, and I remember the smell of the sea. I remember the smell of ice creams. What can you remember? Have a chat to your parent or carer and tell them about those memories. And once you've done that, we're going to press play, and we're going to carry on with the lesson. Wow, that's really interesting, isn't it? How we can remember smells really, really clearly when we're thinking back of a specific memory and a specific time. So the next activity is we're going to look at our breathing, so I'm going to show you how we're going to breathe, and then you are going to have a go as well. Okay. I'm going to show you how we're going to do some breathing. So what you're going to do is one hand is going to go on your chest, and the other hand is going to go on your tummy. So you're going to push down with your hand into your tummy as you breathe out. So you're going to go and then you're going to breath in by pushing this hand that's on your tummy, you're going to push that away. So you're going to go and hold it and breathe out again. And you're pressing against your body with your hand. And now you're going to breathe in again and breathing out. So you will see that my top hand stands actually quite still. It's only my bottom hand that moves out and in, out and in. Whereas my top hand stays still. Now you are going to have a go. Pause the video here to complete the activity. Taking a deep breath, put one hand on your tummy and one other hand on your chest. Push your tummy all the way down, and then take a deep breath in and feel your tummy push your hand away. Hold that for two seconds, and now breathe out. Brilliant! Now, once you've done that, play the video again, and we will carry on with the lesson. You did great there breathing in and out using your tummy rather than your chest. When you breathe slowly and deeply, our body and our mind really relaxes. And it helps us to be calm. However, when we breathe in and we just hold that breath, it kind of helps us to focus our body and it prepares us. So especially think about when you are ready to run a race, you will deep breath in, and you will hold that until you hear that whistle blow, and then you will start to breathe out and run as fast as you can. So when we breathe in, we hold our breath a little bit, it helps us to prepare and focus. Whereas when you breathe out, our muscles release the tension, and we are relaxing a lot more. So we can use our breath very effectively in everyday life to either be focused and ready or to breathe out and relax. Isn't that great? Well, I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson about smells and breathing and how our nose works. We are going to carry on finding out more about taste and smell in the next few lessons.

Our Sense of Smell

Our Sense of Smell

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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