*HSP NEWS
The Highly Sensitive Child (HSC)
Nature vs Nurture:
The more ‘sensitive’ child is more susceptible than others to environmental influences in a for-better-and-for-worse manner, more sensitive to positive experiences but also to negative experiences. In other words, sensitive children will respond more positively to a nurturing and supportive upbringing than ‘less sensitive’ children. However, a more negative upbringing, lacking nurturing and support, will have a more detrimental effect on them than ‘less sensitive’ children.
Most of the time parents are neither “good” or “bad” in their parenting. Because of a parent’s individual personality one child may thrive under their care as there is a “goodness of fit”, her sibling however, where there is not such a goodness of fit, may not do so well. For example, a ‘less sensitive’ parent may not parent as well a ‘highly sensitive’ child (and vice-versa). “But there is always a good fit when parents accept their children for who they are, then adapt their methods to suit the child. Studies in which parents are trained to understand their child’s temperament consistently find that the children of these parents have far fewer problems” (Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., 2015). There are big personal rewards for both the parent and child if a less sensitive parent learns to understand their highly sensitive child for instance.
An example of understanding your child’s highly sensitive temperament:
I have found in my private practice that often an HSC will outwardly appear to have weathered a family upheaval such as a marriage break-up better than any of their siblings. As a result, parents may confide in these children because they don’t show signs of distress or ‘act out’ in the way other siblings may do to protect their own ‘emotional space’. However, after a while the child may show a tendency to withdraw and/or get sick more often and parents may begin to suspect that the child has in fact been affected more deeply than their calm exterior might indicate. (Please take note of Pink Yarrow’s flower essence description later.)