How can we develop stereognostic sense?

Stereognostic Sense
The development of the stereognostic sense is an important part of a child's work in the sensorial area. Just as important as any of the other senses, the stereognostic sense allows the child to discriminate size and shape through the use of touch. Dr. Montessori wrote, "When the hand and arm are moved about an object, an impression of movement is added to that touch. Such an impression is attributed to a special sixth sense, which is called a muscular sense, and which permits many impressions to be stored in a 'muscular memory,' which recalls movements that have been made." The use of the stereognostic sense allows the child to form a mental picture through touch and movement. Other activities that develop the use of the stereognostic sense include the mystery bag and the stereognostic bag.
The stereognostic activities are initially performed with the eyes open. Once the child knows how to feel the object in their hand and is familiar with it, the objects are then used with a blindfold. I introduced this to my daughter using just two types of pasta. After the initial sorting with the use of vision, she observed me using the blindfold to sort the pasta. She then had a turn. For more of a challenge, I will introduce another shape and later have four different shapes. Part of the challenge is also remembering which container each object belongs in, which is great for memory skills. Other sorting materials could include buttons, beans, or shells. The important aspect of this activity is that the objects must vary in size and shape.
Colored pasta is very simple to make. Add a few drops of food coloring and a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the pasta in a bag. Move it around a bit. Let it air dry as soon as the coloring looks satisfactory; it will dry very quickly.
In addition to using our sense of touch to determine texture and weight, our sense of touch can also provide information about size and shape. This is referred to as the stereognostic sense.
Children enjoy the challenge of trying to guess what an object is by feeling it with their hands. Familiar objects can be placed in a bag so that children can reach in, feel one of several objects, and then try to guess what it is. They can then pull the object out of the bag and look at it to see if they were correct.
They also enjoy putting on a blindfold and trying to sort objects by holding them and determining in which piles to place them.
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