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Understanding Highly Sensitive Children

In recent years, the concept of being a highly sensitive person (HSP) has gained more widespread understanding. An estimated 15-20% of people have the innate trait of high sensitivity, which means they process stimuli and emotions more deeply. This includes external stimuli like noises, smells, and light as well as internal stimuli like emotions and thoughts. While the term highly sensitive person originated with adults, it also applies to children.

Highly sensitive children may pick up on subtleties in their environment that others overlook. Loud noises like sirens or noisy classmates can feel jarring. Scratchy fabric on their skin could be intolerable. They have big feelings that they experience intensely, both highs like excitement and joy and lows like sadness and frustration. These big emotions combined with their innate empathy makes highly sensitive children deeply caring, intuitive, and emotionally intelligent.

Signs of a Highly Sensitive Child

How do you know if a child is highly sensitive? There are some key signs to look out for:

• Notices and reacts strongly to noises, smells, tastes, textures
• Bothered by bright lights, scratchy clothing, or uncomfortable shoes
• Overwhelmed in busy, chaotic environments like playgrounds or crowded stores
• Prefers quiet activities over high energy ones
• Tends to play alone or with just one or two other kids
• Has intense emotions and feelings
• Shows concern for others and cares deeply about fairness
• Dislikes scary stories or movies
• Gets nervous with new situations
• Needs extra time to adjust to changes

Keep in mind that high sensitivity often overlaps with traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or introversion. But it is a distinct trait that is not inherently linked to developmental, social, or psychological conditions. If you notice signs of high sensitivity in a child, the most important thing is accommodating their needs with compassion.

Supporting Highly Sensitive Children

Parenting or teaching a highly sensitive child can be rewarding but also challenging at times. Here are some tips to provide the right support:

• Give them time and space to adjust to changes and novel situations at their own pace.
• Teach coping strategies like deep breathing, visualization, and taking quiet breaks.
• Explain that feeling emotions strongly is normal for highly sensitive people.
• Help set healthy boundaries around their time and energy.
• Provide ways to escape overstimulating environments like noise-cancelling headphones.
• Respect when they do not want to be touched or hugged.
• Encourage them to explore their creativity through art, writing, dance, etc.
• Surround them with caring friends and adults who nurture their gifts.

The Positives of High Sensitivity

While being highly sensitive has its challenges, it is an innate trait with many positives. Highly sensitive children tend to have the following gifts and abilities:

• Advanced empathy and concern for others
• Noticing things that others overlook
• Deep thinking before acting
• Great intuition about peoples moods or motivations
• Heightened appreciation for art, music and nature
• Ability to focus deeply for long periods
• Creativity and rich inner life
• Strong sense of mindfulness and integrity

Rather than viewing high sensitivity as a problem to fix, it is healthier to nurture it as a valuable personality trait. With the right support, highly sensitive children can learn to thrive and harness their gifts.

Understanding Sensory Processing Differences

Many highly sensitive children have sensory processing differences that make them over or underresponsive to certain stimuli. For example, some loud or high-pitched sounds that are barely noticed by others can be agonizing. On the other hand, some children are hyposensitive and crave intense sensory input.

When the brain has trouble modulating sensory input, everyday experiences like getting dressed, eating certain textures, or being in noisy crowds can be challenging. Supporting sensory needs and accommodating sensitivities helps highly sensitive kids navigate overstimulating environments while nurturing their social confidence.

Signs of Sensory Processing Differences

Here are some common signs of sensory processing differences:

• Bothered by scratchy clothing, clothing tags, or snug waistbands
• Picky eater, especially regarding food textures
• Avoids lively, noisy spaces like playgrounds
• Covers ears or is distressed around loud noises
• Fascinated by visual patterns and movements
• Loves rhythmic, intense movements like rocking or spinning
• Unusually high or low pain tolerance
• Dislikes having hair, face, or hands touched/washed
• Poor coordination or balance
• Craves sweet, spicy, or sour flavors

Paying attention to a childs unique sensory preferences provides important clues about how to support them. Open communication helps parents and teachers understand which stimuli are soothing versus overstimulating for a child.

Supporting Sensory Needs

Here are some simple accommodations and lifestyle adjustments to help sensitive kids with sensory processing differences:

• Provide clothing and bedding made of soft natural fibers
• Let them wear noise-cancelling headphones as needed
• Keep their space low-clutter and neutral colors
• Use natural light and limit screen time before bed
• Create cozy spaces for quiet time and decompression
• Provide fidget toys for hands-on stimulation
• Offer crunchy/chewy snacks, sour candies, or minty gum
• Do heavy work activities like pushing, pulling, lifting
• Experiment to find comfy shoes with good traction
• Watch for signs of sensory overload and offer breaks

Getting occupational therapy evaluation can also help kids with sensory differences develop helpful coping skills. Most importantly, respect each childs unique needs while nurturing their strengths.

Nurturing Emotional Sensitivity

Highly sensitive children experience emotions with profound depth and complexity. While this gives them a rich inner life, it also makes them prone to intense feelings like anxiety, sadness, or overwhelm when situations are challenging.

Supporting sensitive kids' emotional health is just as important as accommodating their sensory needs. With the right coping skills and nurturing environment, their emotional sensitivity transforms into a gift for relating to others and creative expression.

Signs of Emotional Sensitivity

Some signs that a child experiences emotions strongly include:

• Crying or becoming withdrawn in response to criticism
• Noticing and worrying when others are sad or upset
• Disliking scary movies or stories
• Being deeply moved by nature, music, or art
• Withdrawing from noisy, high-energy environments
• Reluctance trying new things or being the center of attention
• Fatiguing easily in stimulating or emotional situations
• Preferring familiar routines and quiet play

Children may also complain of physical symptoms like tummy aches, headaches, or feeling tired when emotionally overwhelmed. Tuning into their feelings and providing empathy gives sensitive kids an emotional vocabulary to express themselves.

Supporting Emotional Needs

Parents and teachers can help highly sensitive children thrive by:

• Teaching calming practices like belly breathing, visualization, yoga
• Encouraging them to express feelings through art, music, writing
• Setting aside daily downtime without distractions or demands
• Creating cozy spaces for quiet time and emotional resets
• Explaining its normal to feel deeply and validating their emotions
• Modeling self-care practices like exercise, time in nature, saying no to demands
• Helping set healthy boundaries around their time and energy
• Praising their emotional sensitivity as a gift and strength

Meeting sensitive kids where they are emotionally without judgment, while guiding them to understand and express their feelings, sets them up for psychological resilience as they grow.

Reframing High Sensitivity as a Positive

Historically, many highly sensitive children have been viewed through a problematic lens and pressured to change their innate temperament. Implicit messages that there is a right way to be can damage sensitive childrens self-esteem.

Today, we understand high sensitivity as a normal human variation encoded in the genes. With the right support, highly sensitive kids can thrive just like anyone else. Reframing high sensitivity as a valued part of natural human diversity, not as a flaw, is powerful.

Embrace Your Childs Unique Personality

Rather than viewing their sensitivity as a problem, embrace it! Communicate to children, both in words and actions:

• You are not too sensitive, you experience the world deeply, which is a gift.
• Your sensitivity is a strength and important part of who you are.
• I accept you exactly as you are.
• Lets figure out together how to create an environment where your sensitivities are supported.

Parents of highly sensitive kids can connect with support groups to share strategies. But the most vital messages come from the family environment children grow up in.

Advocate for Their Needs

Since highly sensitive children are often misunderstood, they rely on parents and teachers to advocate for them. Help bring awareness to their needs through:

• Educating relatives, friends, and community about sensitivity as a normal, natural trait
• Training caregivers, healthcare providers, educators on sensitivities
• Asking institutions to accommodate sensitivities (quiet rooms, sensory-friendly options)
• Speaking out against discrimination, bullying and marginalization of sensitive people
• Providing access to mentors and role models who are highly sensitive

With supportive advocacy and increased societal awareness, environments can become more inclusive for sensitive children to reach their full potential.

Fostering Giftedness and Self-Esteem

Far from being deficient or defective, many highly sensitive children are gifted. The combination of emotional depth, sensory processing differences, and empathic abilities is fertile ground for talents and passions to take root. However, highly sensitive kids are also at risk for low self-esteem when their differences are not nurtured.

Parents and teachers play a crucial role in cultivating self-confidence along with skill development tailored to the childs interests and abilities.

Signs of Giftedness

Some common characteristics of gifted children include:

• Advanced vocabulary and speaking skills
• Curiosity about how the world works
• Retaining large amounts of information
• Making insightful

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.