How to Win with Sensitive Kids – Straight Tips

Tip number 4: Empathize

Sensory-driven kids have a hard time finding enjoyment in life because their senses are often rubbed raw. When they finally find fun, sometimes they can’t bear for it to end. When enjoyment is quickly taken away from a young supersensory child, it can be especially traumatic, because he or she doesn’t know when the fun will return. Before punishing the temper tantrum that sometimes starts when the fun ends, try to empathize by saying, “I know you’re mad and I know you want to keep all the toys, because you’re having fun and sometimes fun seems far away.” Make an effort to enlist your child in consoling, enjoyable and nurturing activities where no strangers are present to balance their anxiety and soothe their senses.

Tip number 5: Relate

“Everybody hates me. I feel so alone. I hate the world.” No matter how extreme and unrealistic your child’s declarations sound, try to relate by sharing a time in your life when you felt the same way. Without offering suggestions or changing the subject, remember out loud how you felt the world was against you and then simply listen to your child, allowing him or her to explore and express his or her feelings freely.

Tip number 6: Empower

At every single moment, your child is paying very close attention to every word on television, every song lyric, every sigh between you and your spouse; analyzing it, evaluating it and searching for the meaning behind it. It is your child’s choice what he or she will do with that information once it’s processed. In the four steps above you’ve taught your child through experience and circumstances that she is safe, that he isn’t alone, that she can trust her nature and that he can process his feelings out loud. With this foundation in place, you can empower your child to make healthy choices based on the sensory information they have collected.

All in all, setting a goal of having compassion for how your child experiences things, your consistent effort and presence will pay off for both of you, stimulating a parent-child bond that relieves your child of the anxiety that lies at the root of his or her over-the-top behavior.