April 13, 2026 – As air-raid sirens in Israel have become a frequent feature of daily life, a new study offers a sobering look at how the physical senses of young children are being fundamentally altered by the trauma of war. The research, published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, provides a window into the lives of children who survived the October 7, 2023, attacks and suggests that, for many, the world has become a place of overwhelming sensory stimulus.

The research was led by Lihi Liberman, a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Prof. Yafit Gilboa from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s (HU) School of Occupational Therapy, in collaboration with Efrat Harel, an occupational therapist at Reichman University’s Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology. Together, they studied the sensory lives of 37 children from the Gaza Envelope who were directly exposed to violence and subsequently displaced from their homes.

For these children, the consequences of the trauma did not end when they reached safety. Ten months after the initial events, the researchers found that nearly half of the participants displayed atypical sensory processing patterns. This means their nervous systems no longer interpreted everyday information like a soft touch or a distant lawnmower as neutral. Instead, these children were frequently in a state of sensory sensitivity or avoidance, where the ordinary world felt like an assault on their senses.

The researchers observed that this heightened state of alert is directly tied to emotional distress. The study found that the more a child’s sensory responses differed from the norm, the more likely they were to experience intense anxiety, fearfulness, and acting-out behaviors.

Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict, the study provides a map of the invisible toll taken on the young survivors of 2023. What might be a distant hum of activity for an adult can be an overwhelming sensory assault for a child with heightened sensitivity. These triggers do more than cause temporary fear. They create a persistent hurdle to the learning and social participation that are critical during this window of rapid brain growth.

The researchers emphasized that these findings are a call to action for the medical community. They argue that occupational therapists should be integrated into trauma care teams to help children navigate their environment. By identifying these sensory needs early, practitioners can provide families with the tools to help children feel safe in their own bodies again. As the region remains on edge, the study serves as a reminder that the scars of war are often invisible, hidden within the very way a child hears the world.

The research paper titled “Sensory Processing Disorders and Emotional Distress Among Young Children Exposed to Traumatic Events” is now available in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and can be accessed here.

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