Many children with a brain imbalance have a poorly developed or completely absent sense of smell. Many of these children do not even know how to sniff. If your child cannot sniff, they cannot smell! Try it out and let us know in the comments.

The sense of smell has the shortest route to the neurons in the brain as compared to all the other senses. Smell is our most primitive sense and the only one not to go through the brain stem. Did you know….the sense of smell is on the same neurological circuit responsible for both motivation and social skills! The sense of smell is directly related to learning, memorizing and socialization. Many times a child who is a picky eater has an altered (either overactive or underactive) sense of smell.

How to improve your child’s sense of smell:

  1. Use these types of smells (we like to use essential oils):
    1. RIGHT brain delay: bold scents such as lemon, lime, pepper, licorice, and coffee.
    2. LEFT brain delay: flowery scents such as lavender, rose, strawberry, and cherry.
  2. Blindfold your child or have them close their eyes.
  3. Test your child and see if they can identify the smells. For a right brain delay, only sniff from the right nostril. For a left brain delay, only sniff from the left nostril.
  4. When the child can correctly identify 5 scents over 3 trials you are done!

If you are uncertain whether your child has a hemispheric imbalance, head over to our website and subscribe to our newsletter. You’ll be immediately redirected to the Cognitive Checklist for Hemispheric Imbalance. If you discover your child does have an impaired sense of smell, it is imperative they begin the neurodevelopmental movements & exercises we teach in our online workshop and parent coaching program.

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