Experiments: Hearing

What Kids Learn

Our senses work together as a team to help us identify things and make sense of the world around us.

This experiment shows kids how it's easier to know what something is when we can see, smell, or touch it as well as hear it. The experiment also shows kids how our brains can sometimes recognize a familiar sound (like a dog barking, for example) even when we don't see what's going on. But seeing still helps. We may know the sound of a siren, for example. But is that a police car, ambulance, or fire truck going by?

How to Play

What You Need

• A blindfold
• Items that make noise (coins to jingle in a jar, a book to close, hands to clap, paper to crumble, paper to rip, bubblegum to crack or pop, a ball to bounce, and supplies for any other sounds you can think of)

What to Do

1. Have the child wear a blindfold or close his or her eyes.
2. Make each noise.
3. Ask the child to guess what the noise is. How many did he or she guess right?

Reviewed by: Eric H. Chudler, PhD

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