When you hear the phrase ?highly sensitive? used to refer to a child, you might imagine a kid who cries at the slightest provocation. But parents of highly sensitive kids know that there is more to their children?s temperaments than big feelings. Highly sensitive kids have nervous systems that are highly aware and quick to react?and it is a temperament found in about 20 percent of children, according to psychologist Elaine Aron, the author of The Highly Sensitive Child.
Highly sensitive kids don?t necessarily have sensory processing disorder (SPD), however. The scientific term for it is sensory processing sensitivity, and it differs from SPD in that this low tolerance for distress is a personality trait or quirk, and not an actual dysfunction of the senses.  Here are nine signs your kid may be highly sensitive:
1. They have empathy to spare.
Highly sensitive kids are not only emotionally reactive, but extremely empathetic. Seeing the people they love get upset can often trigger them to get upset, too.
2. Clothes are a literal pain.
It?s not about preferring the Batman shirt to the Frozen tee?seams in socks and itchy tags can be impossible for a highly sensitive kid to handle due to their sensory processing sensitivity. Some parents, for example, may even special-order seamless socks online to cut down on daily getting-dressed battles. 
3. They process things deeply.
This can be seen in a kid?s probing, thoughtful questions, their precocious use of big words after only he...