Highly Sensitive Children · Ages 5 and up
High sensitivity isn't a flaw to fix. It's a temperament to understand.
Some children feel things more deeply, take in more of the world around them, and overwhelm more easily. With the right support, that sensitivity becomes a strength instead of a struggle.
What it looks like
What high sensitivity can look like
Highly sensitive children are all different, but families often recognize some mix of the following.
- Big reactions to small changes in plans or routines
- Overwhelm in loud, busy, or brightly lit places
- Deep empathy, absorbing the moods of everyone around them
- Holding it together at school, then melting down at home
- Strong sensitivity to clothing textures, sounds, or smells
- Slow to warm up in new situations, cautious before joining in
Working with your child's wiring, not against it
High sensitivity is a temperament, not a disorder. Our clinicians help sensitive kids name what they feel, build skills for calming an overloaded nervous system, and recover from overwhelm faster.
Just as important, we help parents tell the difference between sensitivity and anxiety, which often gets tangled up with it, and adjust daily routines so meltdowns become less frequent and less intense.
For younger children, much of this work happens through play therapy. When worry itself is running the show, anxiety treatment may be what's needed.
Our approach
How we support highly sensitive children at LodeStone
A whole-picture, family-centered path, not a one-size-fits-all plan.
Understand your child's temperament
We take time to understand how your child experiences the world, and to separate sensitivity from anxiety, sensory concerns, or something else.
Build regulation skills
Practical, age-appropriate tools for handling big feelings and busy environments, taught in ways sensitive kids actually enjoy.
Coach parents and caregivers
You'll learn what genuinely helps a sensitive child thrive at home and at school, without walking on eggshells.
Not sure where to start? Get answers and we will match your family with the right clinician.
We provide this care in person at our Hinsdale and Woodstock offices, and by telehealth across Illinois. We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit.
A closer look
Understanding high sensitivity: a temperament, not a diagnosis
Some children are born with a more responsive nervous system: they process experiences more deeply, notice subtleties others miss, feel emotions, their own and everyone else's, at higher volume, and overload faster in loud, busy, or new environments. Researchers call it sensory processing sensitivity. It is a normal, heritable temperament, not a disorder, and it comes bundled with real gifts: empathy, conscientiousness, creativity, and depth.
Sensitivity, anxiety, or something else?
The tricky part for parents is telling sensitivity apart from the things it can resemble: anxiety, sensory processing concerns, autism, or ADHD. A sensitive child avoids the birthday party because it's overwhelming; an anxious child avoids it because of worry; the difference matters, because the right support differs. We take that differential seriously, and when the picture is unclear, careful evaluation can settle it.
Why the right environment changes everything
Research on sensitive children carries a hopeful twist: they aren't just more affected by harsh environments, they're more affected by good ones, often ending up thriving beyond their less sensitive peers when parenting and school fit their wiring. That's why we work both sides: skills for the child, and practical adjustments for the adults shaping their world.
Your first steps
What to expect when you start
Sensitive kids notice everything, including whether a new place feels safe. We plan for that from the first hello.
Before your first visit
Start with the get-answers form or a phone call. Tell us what your child is like, not just what's hard, and we'll match them with a clinician suited to a slow-to-warm-up temperament. Benefits are verified before the first visit.
The first sessions
For younger children, the work often happens through play therapy, where feelings are easier to reach than in question-and-answer. Your clinician also separates temperament from anxiety or sensory concerns, so support aims at the right thing.
Skills for them, strategies for you
Your child learns to name feelings and calm an overloaded system; you learn what actually helps at home and school, from meltdown recovery to preparing for transitions, without walking on eggshells.
Good to know
Highly sensitive children: frequently asked questions
Is high sensitivity a disorder?+
No. It's a normal temperament, and it is not something to cure. Therapy enters the picture when sensitivity is causing real struggle, daily meltdowns, school distress, a shrinking comfort zone, or when parents want help telling sensitivity apart from anxiety or something else.
Will my child grow out of it?+
The temperament tends to stay; the struggling doesn't have to. A sensitive nervous system is lifelong wiring, but regulation skills, confidence, and the right environmental fit change what that wiring feels like to live with. Plenty of thriving adults are exactly this kind of kid, grown up and well supported.
How do I know it isn't anxiety or autism?+
You often can't from the outside, and the overlap is real, which is why we assess carefully rather than assume. When needed, our doctoral-level clinicians provide testing that can distinguish temperament from anxiety, autism, ADHD, or sensory concerns, so support fits what's actually there.
School is where it falls apart. Can you help there?+
Yes. Holding it together all day and melting down at home is a classic sensitive-child pattern, and it usually improves as regulation skills grow and recovery time gets built into the day. With your permission, your clinician can also coordinate with your child's school on practical adjustments.
Will insurance cover this?+
We are in-network with BCBS PPO, Blue Choice, Aetna, Medicare, and United Behavioral Health, and we verify your benefits before your first visit so you know exactly what to expect.
Is telehealth an option for young children?+
For the parent-coaching half of the work, telehealth is excellent. For young children themselves, in-person play-based sessions are often the better fit, and many families combine the two. We offer both, across Illinois by video and in person in Hinsdale and Woodstock.