1 in 15 Children Have This, Does Your Child Have HSC Too?

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A highly sensitive child (HSC) is one of the fifteen to twenty percent of children born with a nervous system which is highly cognisant and quick to react to everything. This makes them quick to grasp subtle changes, prefer to reflect deeply before acting and generally behave meticulously.

They are also easily overwhelmed by high levels of stimulation, sudden changes, and the emotional distress of others. There is a blend of traits a HSC can have – some are fairly difficult, emotionally intense, persistent and demanding–while others are calm, turned inward, and almost too easy to raise except when they are expected to join a group of children they do not know.

Although each HSC may have different traits, all of them are sensitive to their emotional and physical environment.

Could your child be a HSC? Here are a few common habits of Highly Sensitive Children:

  • Easily startled, doesn’t really enjoy big surprises
  • Learns better from a gentle correction than strong punishment
  • Uses big words for his/her age
  • Very intuitive and has a clever sense of humour
  • Struggles to get to sleep after an exciting day
  • Doesn’t do well with big changes
  • Asks a lot of questions
  • Wants to change clothes often if wet or sandy
  • A perfectionist
  • Notices subtleties (a change in a person’s appearance or something that’s been moved)
  • Performs best when strangers aren’t present
  • Feels things deeply
  • Bothered by noisy places
  • Very sensitive to pain
  • Notices the distress of others

How To Help Your HSC

First and foremost – know that it is not an illness or syndrome. Nor is it something new that was just discovered or made up – it is an inborn temperament or style that is found in about twenty percent of children.

Here are a few tips to help you parent a HSC child:

1.Don’t raise your voice

Shouting at a HSC will only cause them stress and actually scare them. Shouting for them to clean up their rooms will have anything but the desired effect of getting them to move faster. Try to keep things calm, including your voice, if you want to get your message through to a HSC.

2.Warn your child of an upcoming transition

Give your child time to adjust to the idea of a change. In general, HSCs do not enjoy change and do not respond very well to being asked to stop what they are doing and quickly switch to something else.

For example, “Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes. You have 5 more minutes to play and then 5 minutes to tidy up” will work so much better than, “Dinner is almost ready! Pack away your toys now and get ready to eat.”

3.You know your child better than anyone else

You know what makes your child happy, what makes them sad, how they are most likely to react in a specific situation and how they will feel about an activity.

Trust that you know your child!

This fact will help you make decisions about and with your child that will help them flourish – even when there is resistance to your way of doing things.

24 Comments

  1. April Duffy

    June 2, 2016 at 2:44 am

    lol. Intelligence is now a disorder.

  2. Eli Gil

    June 2, 2016 at 2:55 am

    Rodriguez Noe

  3. Kristina Gjorgjievska Gonzales

    June 2, 2016 at 3:18 am

    The description sound like my PMS symptoms

  4. Allison Michele Brickey

    June 2, 2016 at 3:20 am

    Brian Allen Brickey wth?

  5. Donna Ciccolo Admirand

    June 2, 2016 at 3:28 am

    Really? Another label?

  6. Linda Mirella Jovel

    June 2, 2016 at 4:06 am

    Yup ! There you go… Labels , labels

  7. Maria Murphy

    June 2, 2016 at 6:14 am

    Charlotte Rodgers

  8. Jenn Coyle-Amero

    June 2, 2016 at 6:21 am

    Wow

  9. Marialena Parisi

    June 2, 2016 at 6:32 am

    Sime Peros

  10. Stephanie DuBois

    June 2, 2016 at 6:48 am

    Megan DuBois

  11. Aine Ni Bhanain

    June 2, 2016 at 1:22 pm

    Barry Colclough so sounds like charlie

  12. Alissa Harding

    June 2, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    This is a thing?? Isn’t this just All children?

  13. Carmel Tarpey

    June 2, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    Kathleen O’Leary read this and the few links with it …. Interesting x

  14. Tanya Norwood-Herd

    June 2, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    Oh give it up already!

  15. Irene Guerrero

    June 3, 2016 at 5:22 am

    Magali Guerrero Cynthia Yg huh….

  16. g1nge

    June 3, 2016 at 5:35 am

    VERY similar to a child on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, except it’s missing a few quirks. So is this what they are calling children who don’t meet all of the specific qualifications for ASD? Having just gone through the ASD testing for my son, he has a lot of the qualities of HSC, so there are some similarities.

  17. Ashley Costanzo

    July 22, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Diana Thompson do you think this is Gabe?

  18. Indira Sandoval

    July 22, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    Yarely Buenrostro este es el que te digo

  19. Ashley Costanzo

    August 17, 2016 at 4:34 am

    Diana Thompson this is Gabe

  20. Brandy Lee

    August 17, 2016 at 7:58 am

    Krystal LaQuant

  21. Julie Kline Gualano

    September 10, 2016 at 9:51 pm

    Melody Neuharth Schadler

  22. Brandie Slattery

    September 11, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Stephanie Ballurio Ben?

  23. Stephanie Ballurio

    September 11, 2016 at 11:50 am

    I think it does sound a lot like Ben ~ I would try their parenting techniques and see if you see a difference in his behavior and his reaction to his environment…

  24. Annabelle Berger

    September 11, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    And its most likely genetic.

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