Long-time MNer, NC’d in case outing.
Would really appreciate people’s experiences of dealing with hypersensitivity.
DD is 18 months old, she’s smart: picked up words very early, spoke in complex sentences by 15 months, can name colours and rattles off numbers to 10, knows quite a few letters, can “count” items correctly up to 5, recognises her name written down, knows lots of words to nursery rhymes, freakishly good memory for what things are called and events that happened. Also increasing interest in drawing parallels eg “plants are like tiny trees”. She is also good fun and quite the comedian, swapping words in nursery rhymes for laughs, mimicking people’s voices and so on. We don’t push any of this, she sort of just gets on with it. She generally seems ahead of her peers from looking at milestones and we’ll just wait and see how that unfolds with age.
But she is also extremely sensitive with it, both emotionally and in terms of sensory things. I’ve read this can happen to smart children, so what’s the best way to support?
Examples:
She will genuinely wail if a toy falls down “teddy is hurt”, when DH stuffed a whole biscuit in his mouth she cried “poor daddy, too much, it’s too big”, very emotional when watching cartoons (teary every time Moon Baby goes back to the moon!). We got her a train set, all nicely arranged as a surprise, and she hurriedly took all the toys out “train goes too fast, they’re ok now”. Cries if I do sit-ups because she thinks I’m in pain (she’s not wrong!). There’s a positive side to this emotional sensitivity too: if she sees a child fall over in the park she’s try and go to them or if she sees that a child is collecting eg rocks or sticks she will find more and give it to them. Also warm and loving at home to us and to teddies “everybody comfy in bed?”.
Textures, similar story - huge reservations about walking barefoot at home, let alone on grass/sand, anything new like bubble wrap or snow is usually a big hesitant frown and a whine, though her curiosity does get the better of her and she persists with most things. Overly sensitive to some sounds, especially if they go on for a bit (eg passing train), but loves music and noisy toys, as long as she’s controlling the sounds.
If relevant, she’s not been to nursery yet but due to start age 2.
I wouldn’t say we’re over-cautious as parents, she’s able to roam freely and if she’s in any sort of danger we redirect gently. We don’t argue, no adult TV on for her to see things that may have frightened her. She just seems made that way. We always acknowledge eg if she doesn’t like a texture or if she’s sad and then reassure her.
Is there anything we can do to help her cope a bit better, especially ahead of nursery? The 5-6 toddler peers we know don’t seem to have this kind of sensitivity. Is this something they grow out of?