by SARAH BOURASSA
Experts reveal how parents and caregivers can pick up on cues and learn how to meet their needs.
Highly sensitive kids feel their emotions and surroundings deeply. But how do you know if your child has this personality trait? There are subtle day-to-day behaviors you can watch for that indicate they may be a highly sensitive child (HSC).
A HSC has “heightened sensory abilities … [and is] extremely caring but tends to get overwhelmed by stimuli in the world,” said Dr. Judith Orloff, a psychiatrist and author of the upcoming book “The Highly Sensitive Rabbit.” “It’s so essential in parenting to identify if you have a highly sensitive child so you know how to meet their needs.”
We talked to experts about the not-so-obvious signs that your child is highly sensitive, how they interact differently with the world, and parenting tips you can use to help them thrive.
First of all, what does “highly sensitive” mean exactly?
The personality trait was first researched by psychologist Elaine Aron in 1991, who wrote the book “The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive When The World Overwhelms You.” According to Aron, about 15-20% of children are born highly sensitive, which means they have a “nervous system that is highly aware and quick to react.”
Dr. Becky Kennedy, clinical psychologist and founder of Good Inside, describes these kids as “deeply feeling” and “porous to the world.”
“Their pores, you can almost imagine, are bigger, and so more flows into them and more flows out,” she said. “They have a lot of hypervigilance to all the details they notice.”
Sign No. 1: They don’t like loud noises, strong scents or bright lights.
A HSC hears, smells, sees, tastes and feels more intensely.
“They feel things like they’re holding something with 50 fingers instead of five,” Orloff said.
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