The term “heightened sensitivities” is used to refer to children who experience beyond the five physical senses (i.e., energy) beyond what is currently considered neurotypical. It is not uncommon for children diagnosed with dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, processing issues, or autism, to possess these sensitivities.

Children with this capacity naturally possess different learning and processing skills that, in turn, inform attention, memory, mood, or behavior. These children often are misunderstood as learning disabled, a behavioral problem, or with other disorders in our current systems.

As heightened sensitivities are natural skills we all possess in varying degrees, our children, and our world benefit when we create greater awareness and understanding around these traits in their daily environments.

People born with a heightened capacity to perceive subtle energies (energies that are unseen, but felt) tend to feel, hear, see, smell and experience beyond what is considered “neurotypical.”

They can access a greater spectrum of energy through their senses, and as a result, they are acutely sensitive to environments, people, clothes, foods, smells, sounds, emotions, thoughts, and the beliefs others hold about them. They are often trying to regulate the sheer volume of sense information, which, at times, can be overwhelming.

In general, these children resonate more with what they feel in others (i.e., parents/teachers) or in their environments, rather than what they are told — expressing these energies throug their behavior and emotions.

Some of the common traits children with heightened sensitivities may have are as follows:

• Diverse forms of learning and processing
• Heightened sensory systems
• Perception beyond the five senses
• Strong sense of justice and conviction
• High intelligence
• Creative and conceptual thinking
• Photographic memory
• Highly empathic
• Intuitive
• Fluency in non-verbal forms of communication
• A sense of interconnection to all living things
• Capabilities and sensibilities of the subtle world
• Ability to mirror the feelings and emotions (often unconscious) of others
• Multidimensional awareness
• Ability to articulate, write, and understand light language
• Possess a sense of mission and purpose
• Able to sense dishonesty
• Access or recall of information or experiences that they have never been taught
• Gifted or talented in a specific area

Children, adolescents, and adults may struggle with the following:

• Fitting into social norms
• Linear time
• Educational programming that doesn't resonate with their innate knowing
• Control or authority
• Rules and regulations that threaten their freedom
• Belonging or fitting in
• Harm to any living being (i.e., earth, plants, trees, animals, people)
• High-sensory environments
• Over-stimulation
• Over-scheduling
• Self-regulation
• Family conflict
• Executive functioning skills
• Learning in traditional educational systems (including many progressive schools)

Some of the following characteristics/behaviors are common:

Dysregulation in environments requiring conformity incongruent with who they are.

Increased distraction/dysregulation in environments that require processing multiple inputs and emotions.

Challenges with a curriculum that is non-inclusive of diversity or unrelated to a child’s passions/interests.

Not understanding hierarchical relationships (i.e., parent/child, parent/teacher), which can lead to a “seeming” disrespect for authority.

Resistance to busy work, homework, boredom, or work unrelated to individual interests.

Many children with heightened sensitivities benefit from an education that includes topics on physics, energy, ecology, philosophy, consciousness, health and healing, different forms of communication (i.e. telepathic, intuition, etc.), empathic tools and supports, and the ability to learn about their individual interests.

These children are often heart-based and thrive with an education that goes beyond the intellect to include their whole being.

Children with heightened sensitivities function more from feeling than thinking, freedom than conformity, and flow than a linear construct. They are naturally sensitive to the energy (i.e., thoughts, feelings, and emotions of others) and feel most supported when valued, respected, and seen for who they are.

Similar to most children, they benefit from:

1. Emotionally-regulated environments

2. Respect for their natural body rhythms (i.e., eating when hungry, going to the bathroom when their body signals, etc.)

3. Differentiated curriculum for different children that respects unique learning styles

4. Quiet time and meditation

5. Increasing meaningful learning which engages the heart and involves experience versus factual recitation

6. Teachers that function as mentors, taking into account a child’s interests, talent development, and strengths

7. Fostering a sense of safety, collaboration, communication, and belonging.

8. Environments that are safe, calm, and predictable

While most empaths are energetically sensitive, not all children who have heightened sensitivities to energy are empathic.

Many children who are sensitive to energy (some unknowingly) are misunderstood as defiant, oppositional, and at times insensitive to others.

Children who are highly sensitive to energy may unconsciously feel the thoughts and emotions of others, and can move into a stress response of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn in order to feel protected.

Once we identify these sensitivities and make supportive changes, perceived behavioral issues begin to change.