sensitive children

[EmilyJo13]

Hi everyone, this is my first message on here. I have a son who is highly sensitive to everything from noise, crowds, food textures etc. Ive spend 2 years feeling on my own wondering if it was me, anything I was doing wrong etc. but now know he is a wonderful loving highly sensitive little boy. The problems have started trying to get him to settle into nursery. I'm finding that in general that more sensitive children don't seem to be catered for at all, the same when looking at schools for next year. It seems like they have to be hurried along so they can fit the norm and fit inand I've even have had the impression at nursery that i'm fussing too much. Has anyone else found this with a sensitive child/ sensory processing problems or is it just in my area? I don't see the problem with going at the individual child's pace if it means they will have more confidence at the end of it. Thanks for reading :)

I have a very sensitive child too...when she was small...as in nursery age I was quite naive about what they could do for her....they simply don't have the time to adjust things for sensitive kids...even those with a Statement of Special Needs don't have all their needs met.

I've had to help her myself...adjusting to and coping with the world at large is very important for them in terms of managing day to day.

I have one of these too! Nursery was a disaster. He did slightly better in a nanny-share, but in the end I took voluntary redundancy from work and stayed at home to look after him myself.

He started pre-school t 3.5 and although he took a while to settle in, he did end up having a really positive experience. I chose one that was really structured and school-like as I knew that fitted his personality. The staff were endlessly patient and supportive, which obviously helped loads.

He is 4.11 now (sob!!) and doing quite well in his first year at school. He is way behind his peers socially (his is sensitive to noise and has never been comfortable around other children) but is doing fine 'academically'.
Again, his teachers are being really supportive and he has special small group sessions to help with the parts of school life that he finds difficult. Things that I were expecting to be HUGE issues at school (toileting and eating!) have been absolutely fine, which is a massive relief.