Highly sensitive child

What It Means

A highly sensitive child, in Elaine Aron's description, is a child born with the trait she calls sensory processingSensory processingHow the brain takes in and responds to what a child hears, sees, touches, tastes and smells. See more sensitivity (SPS): they take in and think over experiences deeply, get overstimulatedOverstimulationThe overwhelmed, keyed-up feeling when noise, light, crowds, smells or touch add up to more than your senses can comfortably take in. See more more easily, and react strongly to feelings and to subtle details. Aron, who began researching the trait in 1991 and wrote The Highly Sensitive Child, describes it as a normal, inborn trait and not a disorder. It isn't a medical diagnosis, and it is separate from sensory processing disorder.

How Parents Say It

• "She notices when I've moved one thing in her room."
• "Birthday parties wipe him out."
• "He cried at the sad part of the movie for an hour."

The Breakdown

How it can look by age (our examples of Aron's D.O.E.S. signs)

Ways to help at home. Build quiet time into busy days, give warning before big changes, and name the strengths that come with the trait, like noticing detail and caring about others. These suggestions are ours.

Kept apart from sensory processing. Aron's site has an FAQ explaining that sensory processing sensitivity and sensory processing disorder are different things. Sensory processing concerns, where reactions to sound, touch or light get in the way of eating, dressing, sleeping or play, are a separate subject with their own guidance from pediatricians.

When to talk to the doctor. Talk with your child's doctor if sensitivity comes with reactions that keep your child from eating, sleeping, dressing, going to school or playing, or with worry, sadness or meltdowns that seem out of proportion. CDC recommends raising any concern about how your child plays, learns, speaks, acts or moves, and the doctor can look for other causes.

Where It Comes From

Elaine Aron began researching high sensitivity in 1991 and named the trait sensory processing sensitivity, its scientific term. Her books include The Highly Sensitive Child, and her site lists research articles by her and her collaborators. The four D.O.E.S. signs come from her book Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person.

Good to Know

"Highly sensitive" comes from Aron's research and books. Thomas and Chess's temperament traitsTemperamentA child's inborn style of reacting to the world, like how active, regular, intense or quick to adapt they are, which shapes behavior from infancy. See more include sensitivity, meaning how strong a sound, light or touch must be before a child reacts, but a highly sensitive child is Aron's broader idea, covering depth of thinking and emotional response as well. On her site she says the trait is innate and has been found in over 100 species.

Related Terms and Categories

• Temperament

  A child's inborn style of reacting to the world, like how active, regular, intense or quick to adapt they are, which shapes behavior from infancy.

• Sensory processing

  How the brain takes in and responds to what a child hears, sees, touches, tastes and smells.

• Spirited child

  Parent educator Mary Sheedy Kurcinka's term for a child who is more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent and energetic than most. It isn't a diagnosis.

• Slow-to-warm-up child

  One of Thomas and Chess's three temperament types: a child who holds back from new people and places at first, then warms up with repeated exposure.

• Sensory overload

  When sounds, lights, crowds, touch or other input become more than a child's senses can handle, often ending in distress or a meltdown.

• Emotional regulation

  The growing ability to notice a feeling and manage how strongly it shows and how long it lasts, so a child can calm down and carry on.

Parenting and child development