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children with SOR experience a stress response on a more frequent and more intense basis.  And, they can remain in elevated states of stress for longer periods of time than neurotypical children.

what happens when we cannot habituate to the unimportant sensory stimuli

Our brain must integrate all of this input in order to determine the most important stimuli or information to attend to in order to socially engage and function in the situation. This requires our brainstem to receive all the sensory information from our nerves and our amygdala, and to interpret whether or not the sensory information is a threat.  When the brain works the way it’s supposed to, sensory stimuli that is not important is filtered out

After several exposures to those negative situations the brain begins to anticipate the threat, thereby heightening the stress response even more. They cannot be “talked through” the situation or “reasoned with” because access to the higher, thinking, cognitive cortex has been blocked by the stress response.

Because it is impossible to control all sensory-related aspects of the environment, children with SOR can present as highly anxious, controlling, withdrawing, or with acting out behaviors-- all of which are responses to repeated, elevated stress

Children must be in a state of regulation, or optimal arousal, or what we can call “tolerable stress” before they have the capacity to learn, develop new skills, and try novel activities.

Changing the way the neurological system responds to incoming sensory stimuli, however, takes time—usually 6-12 months of ongoing therapy. In the meantime, it is important that parents, educators, relatives, and other professionals recognize that acting out behaviors may actually be a sensory-related stress response, and the child may need support, soothing through co-regulation, and intervention instead of behavioral interventions or punitive responses.

Caregivers and professions can also be more aware of scenarios that cause stress in children with sensory overresponsiveness and take steps to decrease the intensity of those sensory experiences to prevent a toxic stress load.  

Relationships are vital for a child’s self-regulation and learning.

Recognizing a child’s strengths supports efficacy in interventions and increases a child’s participation in the therapeutic process.

it is important to understand and do better for our twice exceptional children whose abundant and limitless potential often is squandered because of a serious lack of understanding of their day-to-day experiences.

Gifted children with ADHD often show heightened intensity and sensitivity, but they are set up to fail in a system that only recognizes and expects intellectual proclivity without consideration of their emotional needs.

It is important for gifted children to feel fulfilled by meaningful relationships with parents, teachers and professionals who understand these other characteristics that accompany the high IQ scores.

There are at least three levels of giftedness: gifted, highly gifted, and profoundly gifted, all of which may require differentiation within the same classroom.

Asynchronous development is when someone demonstrates strength in one area and relative deficit in another. The stronger the strength, the more disparate the asynchrony and when some areas of accomplishment come easily and others do not, the result is confusion and frustration for both the child and everyone around him

Perfectionism, another characteristic of the gifted experience, often comes with anxiety.

Gifted children are often told how smart they are from an early age. This type of praise can set perfectionists up to fail as they worry about letting others down.

Anxiety is often found in gifted and twice exceptional children, as well as in children with ADHD. Because these children are frequently misunderstood, challenged to control emotions and impulses, frustrated over executive functioning challenges, regularly chastised for behavior and need for movement, they fear their next reprisal, their next failure, their next out-of-sync move.

Intensity is another shared characteristic. Frequently referred to as over excitabilities in gifted literature, gifted folks tend to experience emotional, intellectual, imaginational, sensory, and psychomotor realms in big, bold, all-encompassing ways.

Once you’ve met one twice-exceptional child, you’ve met one twice-exceptional child.

Behavior is communication

The best way to create safe spaces for these children is to set up systems in homes and classrooms that structure activities, account for potential social difficulties, dial down possible sensory challenges, and in effect, plan for potential pitfalls

Most important, knowing that these children desperately want to succeed and need an adult’s help to do so, is imperative for strengthening self-esteem and realizing potential.