Highly sensitive child and ignorance:when everything is exciting

A highly sensitive child… you sometimes hear about it, but what kind of children are they really? And what kind of guidance do they need? If you have a highly sensitive child yourself, you probably already know something about it, but in general there is still a lot of ignorance around this group of children.

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When do you have a highly sensitive child?

A highly sensitive child is an ordinary child, like everyone else, but with a very sensitive nervous system. As a result, sensory perceptions enter unfiltered and are experienced magnified. This makes them more likely to become overstimulated. Normally, a kind of 'internal filter' ensures that you can distinguish between the stimuli that you experience around you.

As a result, some things grab your attention, but you ignore others without even thinking about them. With a highly sensitive child, this filter does not work or hardly works. This can make everything interesting, but also scary. For example, a children's party, a busy day at school or the first swimming lesson are situations that can be exciting and very tiring for a highly sensitive child. They are also very intuitive and creative, think a lot and often ask profound questions.

Read more about raising a highly sensitive child? We can recommend these books.

Understanding for the highly sensitive child is a must for every parent and teacher

• about 20% of the children are highly sensitive, an average of about 6 per class.
• most teachers do not recognize a highly sensitive child in their class.
• their angry tantrums are often a result of hunger and fatigue.
• Highly sensitive children often panic:to 'leave their hands at home', they react 'then I can't eat!'.
• parents are wrongly accused of protecting a highly sensitive child too much

How do you recognize a highly sensitive, stimulus-sensitive child?

How do you find out if you have a highly sensitive child? It is often a matter of paying close attention and recognizing the right signals. For example, does your child have extreme difficulty with changes, and does he or she find it difficult to fall asleep after an exciting and busy day? You can find all kinds of questionnaires online that you can use to test whether your child is highly sensitive. If in doubt, consult, for example, your child's teacher.

Difference in stimulus-sensitive highly sensitive children

Sensitive children… everyone knows a child in his or her environment who is just a little more upset. You may also recognize it in your home. Every child has a different temperament and requires a different approach to parenting, including a highly sensitive child. Where your one child is quickly hit, you as a parent are more careful and sometimes try to navigate more with it. While your more impulsive and busier child may ask you for structure and timely intervention. And of course there is nothing wrong with that as long as your child can continue to function well at home, in the classroom and at the sports club.

Stimulous children

However, there is a group of sensitive children who are so sensitive to stimuli that it hinders their development. We are then talking about a highly sensitive child, or also children with problems in sensory information processing. This means that the children have difficulty processing sensory information.

Oversensitive to stimuli

To illustrate:Anne has trouble going to parties, amusement parks or crowded environments. All the sensory stimuli that are present enter her more strongly and it takes her more than average effort to filter these stimuli. She can't stand the loud noises (she holds her hands over her ears), or the people who are close to her and she also doesn't like the fast and spinning attractions! Anne is a highly sensitive child who is hypersensitive to sensory stimuli.

Undersensitive to stimuli

On the other hand, there are also 'sensitive' children who look for sensory stimuli all day long and experience problems because of their 'busy' as well as 'impulsive' behaviour. Just think of agile children who find it difficult to sit on the chair in class and listen to the teacher's explanations. Or are already in action mode at the sports club and kick children over because of their clumsiness. These children already give up after 1 minute of explanation. They start to wiggle and fidget and receive little information. We call this type of child undersensitive to stimuli.

7 senses we distinguish

As described, a highly sensitive child is not always able to process sensory information well. Which senses are we talking about then? We distinguish the following 7 senses:

• Hear
• View
• Touch
• Scent
• Smell
• Balance
• Movement and Posture

A highly sensitive child can be 'oversensitive' to sensory information, but also 'undersensitive'. And this can also vary. For example, a highly sensitive child can be sensitive to sounds and undersensitive to touch. To illustrate:Peter continues to react horribly to the vacuum cleaner and then puts his hands over his ears and starts screaming, but to calm down he loves to suck his sleeves or hold his mother tight.

Offering sensory stimuli to a highly sensitive child

In general, it can be said that every child processes information through various sensory channels. Children also have their favorite sensory channel. One child can listen to a teacher's story just fine, while the other child can better save the story when it is supported by images. And a third party can only properly absorb information when it can get to work with one's hands.

Addressing various sensory channels is important to challenge and captivate children. After all, every child needs various sensory stimuli to activate and regulate itself. Just look at yourself and your own child. What do you do during a boring meeting? What does your child do when they have to sit still for longer? You and your child will look for incentives to keep up with the lesson.

Sensory products help a highly sensitive child to self-regulate

Some children do not look for the stimuli or too much, making it more difficult to learn. Sensory products and aids are a godsend for these children, but also for your child, it does not necessarily have to be a highly sensitive child. Products listed below are available from Educadora.

1. Tips in case of hypersensitivity or undersensitivity to tactile stimuli (touching)

Instead of sucking on the sleeves, biting nails or gnawing on pencils, chew jewelry offers a safe alternative. After all, chewing is a way to activate or relax. Likewise with busy hands. Some children continuously play with pencil case and touch other children continuously. These children benefit from fidgeting products such as a tangle or twiddle or putty.

• Tangle
• Twiddle
• Putty

In addition, there are special sensory materials that challenge children who have difficulty with tactile stimuli. You may know them… children who do not want to walk barefoot, who cannot tolerate dirty hands, as well as children who enjoy these stimuli. This first group introduces you step by step to various dry textures and you build this up to more slimy substances such as the Glibbi products.

2. Tips for hyper- or under-sensitivity to auditory stimuli (hearing)

A highly sensitive child who has difficulty with a lot of noise can give you a hearing protector at set times. Children who are undersensitive benefit from music via headphones while doing their homework. Let these children play with musical instruments.

3. Tips for hypersensitivity or undersensitivity to visual stimuli (seeing)

Children who have trouble with lots of colors and posters and crowds around them thrive better in a class where they can face a quiet wall or with a partition in front of them. Children who are undersensitive to visualization can best be challenged by using many colors, use markers in the notebook and more color in the room.

4. Tips for over- or under-sensitivity to balance/posture stimuli

Children who have difficulty with movement, posture and balance can certainly gain a lot of experience with balance boards, with elastic cloths as well as with playing and swinging in, for example, the therapy swing. Children who are looking for movement incentives like the snuggle huggle and bodysox, but also the therapy swing. These cloths offer resistance and offer them a lot of space to learn to explore their bodies.

• Therapy Swing
• Snuggle Huggle

5. Tips for over- or under-sensitivity to olfactory stimuli

Children who are sensitive to smell benefit from an environment that is aware of it (not wearing perfume or smoking). A sweater with a collar or hood can help them with an unbearable smell to hide in. If they do like certain scents, then aromatheraputty can be used effectively for certain complaints. Children who look for scents certainly also benefit from aromatherapy, such as using an inhaler or aromatheraputty.

• Aromatherapy

6. Tips for hypersensitivity or undersensitivity to taste stimuli

A highly sensitive child who is hypersensitive to taste eats little varied. When offering food, try to match the flavors that are already being eaten.

Children who are undersensitive to taste, you recognize yourself in looking up new dishes and flavors and you can certainly challenge them to vary to offer in food.

Problems in stimulus processing in combination with ADHD or autism

Problems in stimulus processing can stand alone, but can also occur in combination with, for example, ADHD and/or autism.

Children with sensory processing problems benefit from the use of aids tailored to their sensory needs. an S.I. The therapist can conduct research and advise you as a parent about the use of aids and the use of various incentives in the home or school situation.