Let’s Talk About Super Special Kids & Cake Podcast [Episode 002 / Segment: Arghh]

Today I wanted to discuss when parents are too extreme in dealing with their child’s sensitivities; letting these completely rule not only the special child’s life, but the entire family’s lives too. 

Having a special child can mean they have a dislike to many kinds of things. Being sensitive to those dislikes is important. Showing your child that you are conscious of these demonstrates respect and shows that you care about your child. However, I have found that in some families, parents will reduce their child’s sensitivities to an extreme degree, some cutting it out completely.

For example, some parents have children that have a disliking to bright lights and so they’ll try to keep all the lights off in their home or keep them extremely dim when their child is around! Or, if the child doesn’t like loud sounds such as the vacuum cleaner, some parents never use it around their child. My concern with completely eliminating the dislike from your child’s life is that they become entirely desensitised and this isn’t great either.

I would suggest that instead of taking it to this level, where your child is completely desensitised, there are other ways to combat the issue. For example, if your child doesn’t like the sound of the vacuum cleaner, you could do a recording of your vacuum and then play this, with the volume very low. You could start off with the volume so low that your child is not even aware that it’s on to begin with. You could then gradually increase the volume until it does become tolerable to your child. It may take time, careful thought and planning; but it is so much better that never being able to vacuum your home!

I hope that what the above example demonstrates is that there are many ways to teach your child that they can cope and that they don’t have to be ruled by these sensitivities. The more of these dislikes you can combat together, the less the family have to eliminate from their lives too!

Donia x