Is Your Child Highly Sensitive?

What are some characteristics and challenges experienced by highly sensitive children?

How can adults respond to highly sensitive children in a way that is helpful?

Highly sensitive children have a heightened awareness of their surroundings and experience their environment more deeply than most children. They may have a great imagination and sometimes come up with thoughtful insights beyond their age. They may do well in academic subjects that involve details.

Overly sensitive children are more complicated than their peers and can present special challenges to their parents and teachers.

What are some characteristics and challenges experienced by highly sensitive children?

These children experience emotions more deeply and can be extremely sensitive to other people’s emotions. Some are able to read others due to their keen ability to notice subtle changes in their environment, in people and/or in animals.

They may respond to sadness by sobbing. They may scream with delight when happy and/or shout, bang or hit objects when angry. They may have a long tantrum over a seemingly minor issue.

Because of the wide variation in their mood combined with insights and compassion beyond their age, they may appear unusually mature or extremely immature.

They are extra sensitive to external and internal sensations that they experience.

Their socks might feel like they are pinching their feet. The tag on a worn t-shirt may feel like sandpaper rubbing against their neck. Certain foods may hurt their mouth.

Strong smells may cause a gag reflex. Bright lights can be overwhelming. Feeling hungry might affect their concentration and performance in school. Helping your child to eat a balanced diet may be an ongoing struggle.

Sensitive children may seek ways to get away from over-stimulation caused by sensory inputs. Crawling under a table, insisting on wearing a coat with a hood covering their head or wanting to wear or eat the same thing day after day may be your child’s response to heightened sensitivities and sensory overload. Their actions and behavior may be misunderstood.

Getting lost in details and losing sight of the big picture happens as these children experience their environment in bit and pieces.

Fear and discomfort with new experiences are common concerns. Lack of flexibility and behaviors that do not seem to make sense are common challenges at home and in school.

How can adults respond to overly sensitive children in ways that are helpful?

• Give unconditional love and acceptance. Don’t try to change your child.
• Make small changes slowly.
• Work together with your child to understand his/her sensitivities.
• Engage in conversation about his/her fears, concerns and actions. Problem solve together.
• Be an advocate for your child and communicate his/her highly sensitive nature to teachers.
• Focus on your child’s strengths and use areas of strength to build skills and/or to work around challenge areas.
• Seek the help of professionals when/if you and your child need outside help.

You can find a tutor here who is familiar with strategies for working with highly sensitive children.