A Review of ‘The Highly Sensitive Child’ by A Mother of a Highly Sensitive Child

If you are parenting a highly sensitive child (HSC) then Elaine Aron’s book “The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping our children thrive when the world overwhelms them“ is undoubtedly a must read. I guess you could say it’s the bible of parenting a highly sensitive child.

Catarina Queiroz, mother of a HSC, read Aron’s book from cover to cover and kindly volunteered to share her thoughts.

Review of Elaine Aron’s ‘The Highly Sensitive Child’ Book by Catarina Queiroz

Are you being encouraged to think there is a problem with your child for things like seeming shy and withdrawn, worrying excessively for her age, eating problems, frequent emotional outbursts and nightmares?

It may be that you are the parent of a child that is simply highly sensitive. It’s an inherited trait shared by 15 to 20% of the world’s population, irrespective of gender.

In her book, The Highly Sensitive Child, Elaine N. Aron explains what it means to be highly sensitive. In very broad terms, from birth highly sensitives are wired to notice more in their environment. They reflect deeply before taking action.

An Inherent Natural Trait

Being highly sensitive is not a disorder nor a disadvantage. In terms of human evolution it makes sense to have a large minority that reflects before acting, noticing potential danger and devising good strategies to avoid it.

In contrast to the bold and outgoing majority.

Aron’s book invites parents of Highly Sensitive Children (HSC) to take a fresh look at their child. It invites parents to see the advantages of this innate temperament: being intelligent, intuitive, creative, cautious and conscientious.

The motto the author proposes to these parents is:

“To have an exceptional child you must be willing to have an exceptional child.”

This means embracing your child’s wonderful sensitivity and exploring ways of helping your child thrive it in a world that belongs to the outgoing majority and promotes all forms of overstimulation.

The Importance of Downtime

In this context, it’s important to keep in mind that enough down time and quiet is essential for a child that is highly sensitive to all stimuli from the outer world.

If this need for quiet is respected, a HSC will thrive.

Useful Tips – For Teachers Too

From birth to young adulthood, Elaine N. Aron gives lots of useful strategies for parenting a HSC. There are 20 tips for teachers provided at the end, as well as great resources for further reading.

The Highly Sensitive Child is like a sigh of relief for parents that are constantly bombarded by society to conform. To force their child to be like most outgoing children.

The truth is that it’s ok to be sensitive. This trait is needed to create a balance in our busy, noisy and boisterous world.

If you feel you may have a HSC at home then I recommend that you relax and read this book.

Where to Ask Questions and Find Support

If you are parenting a highly sensitive child and want a friendly ear, then  join the Happy Sensitive Kids closed Facebook group and talk to other parents of HSC.

You can also search this blog for a host of related topics. Or hop over to the accompanying Facebook page  for more tips and advice.

*For your convenience, this post includes affiliate links to products and books I find useful for the HSK community. They cost you nothing more to buy, but I may get a small commission, which goes towards costs to keep the HSK site running.*