Support Your Highly Sensitive Child at School and Home

Highly sensitive children, like adults, live life extra. There are 6 of us and 5 of the people here are highly sensitive. That’s a lot of extra. Highly sensitive people (like me) feel every emotion and stressor on a higher level than someone who is not highly sensitive.

This heightened sense of awareness can be exhausting for the highly sensitive child and others who might not understand. We need to support our highly sensitive child at school or other lessons/gatherings so that they learn good coping strategies for living an extra life.

If your child is highly sensitive, there are steps you can take to help support him or her.

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No Shame

Highly sensitive people are much more likely to feel shame at even the slightest of corrections. Make sure your child knows that their emotions are valid and accepted, even if there is a disagreement about options, emotions, or behaviors.

Process and Understand Emotions

Emotional intelligence is a new idea that is important for all of us. We all need to learn to process and understand our emotions. For highly sensitive kids, this may look like walking through situations with them and talk about emotions more.

Encourage your child to always discuss their feelings so they can feel safe and understood at home. Teach your kids how to do a body scan to help them identify their emotions.

Find Outlets

Outlets for emotions, the good and the bad, are very important for anyone. Highly sensitive people feel emotions deeper and so the need for an outlet is even more important.

Ideas for emotional outlets:

verbalizing how he or she feels (we talk about the power in naming our feelings)
drawing or painting feelings on a canvas
movement to help relieve the tension
meditation or sitting quietly

This teaches children to express themselves in safe and respectful ways and will also keep them from bottling up their emotions.

Find and Use Tools

A toolbox is essential when we teach our kids about emotional intelligence. Tools for expressing oneself, such as writing. Tools for calming oneself, such as deep breathing.

There are also tools that can be used for distracting during stressful situations – these are best used as a pause rather than getting into the habit of distracting from our emotions. Sometimes when we create a pause, it lets us lower the emotional temperature and deal with our emotions without extra drama thrown in.

No matter the tool, make sure it is a healthy tool so we are building the best habits going forward.

Discipline Wisely

Most kids respond best to gentle discipline. Pay attention to what works for your child. If you need help, there are lots of great resources for discipline that is gentle and effective.

Appreciate Themselves

No matter what tools or outlets you find are helpful for your highly sensitive child, the one thing you can give him or her is an appreciation for themselves. Teach your child that everyone is different, with strengths and weaknesses, but that being highly sensitive doesn’t have to be a weakness.

Teach them that being highly sensitive is actually a strength, a superpower that needs a little work. Super Man didn’t fly straight and high the first time.

Loving your Highly Sensitive Kid

You might be a highly sensitive person. Maybe you’re not. Either way, with a child that is highly sensitive, you have a great opportunity to help them (and everyone else) learn to deal with emotions in a healthy way.

This gives them the best chance to become a happy adult that can contribute to their relationships, workplaces, and the lives of others in important and meaningful ways.

Our favorite resources to learn more about your highly sensitive child.