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We all possess an awareness of energy, frequency, and vibration in varying degrees; however, many children today experience beyond the physical senses (i.e., energy) and naturally access a wider frequency field due to their expanded awareness.

Many children who are energetically-sensitive are also neurodivergent. Their heightened awareness of a field of energy and information beyond a neurotypical understanding naturally leads to different learning and processing skills that, in turn, inform attention, memory, mood, or behavior. Too often these different abilities and levels of awareness are misunderstood as learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or other disorders.

However when these heightened sensitivities are supported and understood, they quickly become capabilities and insightful awareness that have much to contribute to our evolving world.

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

• Diverse forms of learning and processing
• Heightened sensory systems
• Perception beyond the seven physical 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 (i.e. telepathic)
• A sense of interconnection to all living things
• The ability to perceive and feel subtle energies or what is considered invisible
• Often 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

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 rather than what they are told. They may mirror — through their behavior and emotions — the unprocessed or unintegrated feelings of parents, teachers, and others without realizing it. When this is understood, communication and connection improve, and deeper integration can occur for everyone involved.

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

• Fitting into social norms
• Linear learning and linear time
• Educational programming that doesn't resonate with their innate knowing
• Control or authority
• Rules and regulations that threaten their freedom
• Feeling that they don’t belong or fit 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 energetic sensitivities benefit from an education that is strength and depth-based, allows for asynchronistic or independent developmental timeframses, utilizes teachers who guide more as mentors based on passions and interests, and help every child feel safe, seen, and valued for who they are. Areas of study may also include topics on physics, math 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 an awareness of their heart and soul.

Children with energetic 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 energetic sensitivities are empathic. Many children who are sensitive to energy (some unknowingly) are misunderstood as defiant, oppositional, and at times insensitive to others. They naturally 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.