Preschool & Parenting Blog

Understanding Under Stimulated & Over Stimulated Child Behaviors If you are reading this preschool article, chances are you have read ‘Part 1’ and are ready to go through the 4 types of behaviors. This article is going to focus on the first type, and that is, calming a child who has over or under stimulated senses. The child who has over stimulated senses will usually show signs of irritability, they may scream to drown out noise, tantrums, they may be non-verbal, try to run away, and show signs of nervousness or anger. The child whose senses are under stimulated may show signs of moodiness, they may be very quiet, they may rock, chew their clothing, and have no or low energy/motivation. Something must be happening to cause these behaviors to come out in a young child. Over Stimulated Child: For a child whose senses are over stimulated they may react in the ways noted above due to: the environment being too loud things moving too fast and its overwhelming lights are too bright things may be too confusing words are too confusing things may feel scratchy (clothing tags, certain materials, etc.) certain food textures may be painful to them Under Stimulated Child: A child whose senses are under stimulated is most likely experiencing mental and emotional shut down from boredom, and they will be spaced out and/or unfocused. They may need: more touch more people watching or taking notice of them more movement (rocking, jumping, running, etc.) louder sounds mouth stimulation (teething toys help) What should we never do about those behaviors listed for both types of senses? The number one thing to NEVER do is stop the behavior. If it is not harming anyone or themselves, then let them be. That behavior is more than likely having a calming effect on them and is helping them cope, and now we have an idea of how to help them. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes. Imagine you were sitting in a room with a bunch of people and everyone got to play their favorite song on a CD player. One member of the group plays a loud, ear piercing song that makes you feel uncomfortable and it’s so loud your ears hurt so you cover them and that helps you cope and you decide to keep your ears covered until the song is over. The person who has the song playing sees you and immediately comes over to you and pulls at your hands to take them away from your ears because they think you need to hear the song. You resist and it becomes a struggle. You then become angry, the person pulling your hands away is angry, and the rest of the people in the group become uncomfortable as they watch the struggle. Wouldn’t it be nice if you were able to keep your ears covered until the song was over or you were able to leave the room until you felt comfortable enough to join them again? […]