"Sixth Sense"

Sensitive: (adj) quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals or influences.

When I hear someone described as sensitive, I don’t ever immediately think of Noah. However, when presented with that definition, its startlingly appropriate.

All too often Noah is triggered by something you or I would typically shrug off and barely register on our radar. Something as momentary as our recent car alarm incident can indefinitely alter his trajectory for the rest of the day. At times it seems as though he has a sixth sense. Fortunately, that “sixth sense” doesn’t appear to be seeing dead people like in the Bruce Willis flick (although he cannot communicate with us very well, so I guess that remains a unnerving possibility!).

When examining senses further we see that if the temperature is too hot in the summer, he wants to come inside. If its too cold, he seeks to avoid that as well. I’m reminded of when we lost power during a recent snowstorm and how dramatically he was affected by the drop in temperature in the house. You can imagine how that affects our ability to have family outings. We can’t take him tubing or sledding as he’d seek to leave shortly after arriving. We can’t take him to the beach in the heat of summer as he ain’t about that sweatin’ life. We have to calibrate our outdoor family outings to the weather report that day.. and you know how indisputably reliable Joe Weatherman usually is..

Our family bought matching “Flash” t-shirts recently (yes, we’re THAT family), and let me tell you, Barry Allen has got nothing on my Noah when he senses something that affects him deeply. Its important to add that he is a big boy, clocking in at a lumbering 150 lbs. (placing him solidly in the top 1% for boys his age). When he cascades towards an exit, fleeing from a particular sensory input, the Incredible Hulk would have to flex considerably to hold him back.

On a final note, its important to differentiate between our preference to avoid certain environments and his innate dystopian reality where it seems as though he feels unjustly harmed by a particular sensory detail. They are not the same. Please don’t conflate them. Doing so may be an innocent attempt at relating to him, however it cheapens the magnitude of his reality – as if he could just “get over it” the way you and I usually can. His sensitivity is more raw than ours. It’s confined - yet exposed for the ethereal balance that is unique to him and many other special needs kids. If only we could get our own “sixth sense” for recognizing theirs.