Empathic children are born differently. Their nervous systems tend to react in a strong and hurried manner when exposed to stress and other external stimuli.

Empathic children are highly sensitive which makes them unable to manage their sensory overload at times. Their sense of sight, hearing, smell, intuition, and feeling of emotions are much stronger than others.

For example, they may dislike foods with a strong smell, perfumes, sharp bright lights, or noise. They prefer clothes with soft fabric, nature as well as only a few close friends.

There is an ongoing misconception about empathic children. Our society and even schools fail to understand them.

Most often, conventional teachers and physicians labeled them as ‘shy,’ ‘anti-social,’ and ‘fussy,’ and provide them diagnosis as having ‘social phobia,’ ‘anxiety disorder,’ and worst, ‘depression.’

All because they are quieter, more thoughtful, deeper and gentler, unlike other children of their age who appear to be highly verbal or assertive.

Thus, the role of parents is critical in supporting their natural sensitivity, intuition, wisdom, and creativity. These children must be taught with the right tools in coping with the world.

Right guidance can make room for them to realize their emotional superpowers because their potential is a natural reaction to what the world needs. They are the generations that will make the world a much better place for all.

12 Signs Your Child Is An Empath:

Empathic children have the following traits. See if your child possesses any of it.

1. They feel things deeply.

2. They are overstimulated by people, crowds, noise, or stress.

3. They have strong reactions to sad or frightening scenes in books or movies.

4. They escape and hide from family gatherings because what’s going on is too much for them.

5. They feel “different” from other kids and find difficulty in fitting in.

6. They are good listeners and are compassionate with others.

7. They surprise you with intuitive comments about others or yourself.

8. They have a strong connection to nature, plants, animals, or even stuffed animals. They love animals and can’t stand animal violence.

9. They want to spend a lot of time alone than play with other kids.

10. They are affected by a friend’s stress.

11. They take your own, or other people’s emotions or stress, acting out when you’re angry, upset or depressed.

12. They have one best friend, or a few good friends, but not a lot of shallow friendships.

Your child is extremely empathic if you checked 9-12 traits. 6-9 checks indicate strong empathic, 4-8 checks indicate moderate empathic, 1-3 checks indicate some empathic traits that most kids naturally have.

This is what you can do as a parent if your child is an Empath:

Our rough world may not understand their sensitive nature. If you’re a parent of an Empath, the best way to support your child is to bring out the best in them. Support them through their sensitivities and help them excel, show compassion, and sojourn in their depth.

The role of parents is to help their empathic children avoid the activities that overstimulate them. This will prevent them from being exhausted, anxious and displaying tantrums.

1. Become Aware Of Their Triggers.

Because empathic children aren’t able to articulate why they feel awful, enlightened parents must help them identify the triggers and provide solutions in relieving their anguish.

Some of the common triggers are: filling their day with schedules leaving no room for breaks, multitasking, not giving them alone time, watching violent television programs or movies.

When exposed to these factors, they waste a lot more energy due to their emotional hypersensitivity. Even more, they refill their energy by being alone, so not giving them enough alone time is additionally harmful.

Empathetic children have a psychological system that takes a little longer to transition from stimulation to a restful state than other people. They must be given downtime before bed for unwinding and cooling down.

2. Get To Know What Drains And What Fills Their Energy.

Empathic children can also absorb and feel the emotional discomfort of other people such as their parents, siblings or close friends. Considered as “super-responders,” these children can experience hurts that cut deep and joys that feel ecstatic.

Unlike non-empath children, empathic children respond differently to light, noise, and chaotic crowds. Their system perceives stimuli in much higher amount than other people and they can get easily drained and overstimulated.

In large sports events, the cheering, clapping, and booing can be painful to most of them, but not all. Look if your child shows signs of discomfort in such events and don’t ignore their response.

While they respond poorly to loud music, honking, hammering or power tools, they calm down to the chirping of the birds, water elements, gentle wind chimes and other natural noises.

They may cry more, but when having retreated into solitude, they’re able to self-regulate their sensory overload.

3. Teach Them To Honor Their Empathy.

Wherever your empathic child is operating in this spectrum or not, he or she must be taught to honor and accept their emotions and their sensitive nature.

Empaths are people who have heightened perception and sensitivity to energy and stimuli. In every other way, they are normal people like everyone else.

However, not being aware of these differences and unintentionally making them suppress their uniqueness can severely harm them and, even worse, prevent them from realizing their super potential!

As an Empath, they’re precious beings. The depth of their emotions, the superperception, the unbelievable creativity are divine gifts to the world.

Source: Psychology Today;