Interoceiption - Listening TO your body

Interoception!

I have a social skills group I lead once per week.  It consists of Kindergarten and 1st graders.  We have worked through all the Wee Thinkers from Social Thinking, so now as the school year is winding down, I'm adding in some other sessions.  Today we talked about INTEROCEPTION.

You've never heard of this "sense?"  Well, it's all the rage now in the therapy world.  It is the ability to notice physical sensations coming from inside your body.

In the past we have done a lesson on Whole Body Listing (see previous post), and one of my smarty smartersons in the group raised his hand and said we already learned how to listen WITH our bodies.  He was right, of course.  But I explained to him that today we were going to learn how to listen TO our bodies.

I have broken up this topic into four lessons.  Lesson 1 - watch a video and introduce the idea of listening TO your body.  Lesson 2 - Discussing what different body sensations are and where we might feel them in our bodies when having different emotions.  Lesson 3 - Discuss different body sensations and how everyone feels those sensations differently when they experience an emotion.  Lesson 4 - Using the concepts of the zones of regulation and coping skills, we are now going to put together what and where we feel body sensations with emotions and the use of coping skills. (see previous post). You can't decide what coping skill to use until you can feel it in your body. 

Interoception is a pre-cursor to self-regulation.  If you don't "feel" the emotions in your body, then how can you control your emotions?  Answer - you can't.  You will be a slave to your emotions and ride the ups and downs without any control or ability to predict how your body will react to an emotion.  Empowering kids (and adults) to recognize and take control over their own emotions is a very important life skill.

Click on the picture below for the lesson plan and worksheets:

For more information about interoception check out this book:  

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Classroom Coping Skills

Back to school time is here!  I made this visual to help teachers to manage difficult behaviors in the classroom.  This tool does a few different things:

1. Helps the student to name and rate their feelings.

2. Gives the student tools in order to change their attitude.

3. Helps the teacher teach the student to manage their own behavior.

4. Gives the student and teacher concrete words and meaning for emotions.

5. Helps with self regulation for the student.

I am going to be giving this out to all my elementary teachers.  I will include the following directions for use:

You can use this visual in a few different ways:

1. Go over the packet with the student at a time they are calm and open to instruction.  You will not be able to teach them when they are in the midst of being upset.
2. Try to have the student either point or rate their emotions before and after they take a break or do an activity.  If they are too upset at first, have them think about how they felt before they took a break.
3. Look for signs the student’s body is reacting to an emotional state: sweating, red face/cheeks/ears, dilated pupils, fast breathing, gritting teeth.
4. When you see a student getting out of control, bring them over and read the packet together and have the student pick which activity they would like to do in order to calm down.
5. After you have talked to the students about these activities, show one of the visuals to a student who is starting to become upset.  Have them perform one of the activities and then check in with you when they come back.
6. Always check in with the student after performing a “cool down” activity.  Look for signs that they have regained control such as: slower heart rate, slower breathing rate, normal pupil size, calm appearance.
7. Depending on the age of the child, you may be able to train them to perform these activities on their own in the hallway.  
8. For older students (2nd-4th) You can use the “Take a Break Card” as a silent visual that the student needs to do something to change their mood.  Younger students will have to be supervised either in the classroom or in the hallway.

Click on the picture for free printable file.