Clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire first spoke Nine to Noon about highly sensitive children back in March. In part two of the conversation, she tells Kathryn Ryan these children are more prone to feeling guilt and shame - and parents should keep this in mind.

Clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire first spoke Nine to Noon about highly sensitive children back in March.

In part two of the conversation, she tells Kathryn Ryan these children are more prone to feeling guilt and shame - and parents should keep this in mind.

Listen to the full interview here

Listen - How to help highly sensitive children: part 1

Up to 20 percent of children may be highly sensitive people (HSPs) whose reactions to certain happenings can seem oversized, Maguire says.

"That may be kids that only like certain food or have extreme reactions to certain tastes. There are kids that may hate certain textures of clothing, and children that don't like large or loud or unexpected noises.

"They're children that process information very thoroughly so they're deep thinkers, they're largely often creative, they have a strong intuition from a young age, and actually high sensitivity is seen as one of the key characteristics of gifted children.

"They've got very large empathy for other people ... so they can pick up on people's emotions around them from a young age, and they're children that are easily overstimulated."

Overstimulation may result in a meltdown if there are too many quick transitions between activities or periods of the day, Maguire says.

"Often highly sensitive children may be more prone to sudden tantrums or meltdowns because often they're overloaded with information or with emotional overload.

"I also think it's useful to note that with children often they get to the end of the day and they've spent so much energy, holding it together at school, or holding it together with friends or friends' parents, that you kind of get it all when they come back because their capacity to manage has run out."

It's crucial that parents give highly sensitive children enough time to process all their sensory information, she says.

When it comes to discipline, they should be aware HSP children feel guilt and shame more deeply than other children.

"The neuroscience of that is when we get flooded with big negative emotion, we can't think clearly. Now children don't have well-developed frontal lobes to start with, so we want them to have all the cognitive capacity they've got."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details