Iggy Interoception is a 15-part children’s rhyming story book that aims to enhance a child’s interoceptive awareness. Iggy Interoception was inspired and guided by the evidence based Interoception curriculum by Kelly Mahler.

What informed Iggy Interoception?

In 2021, Caitlin Bishop (Occupational Therapist at WHR AH), completed a thesis and research project exploring the connection between executive functioning and interoceptive awareness in school-aged children. From this research, it was found that there is a direct link between self-regulation and interoception. Essentially, a child requires the ability to notice their body changing between emotional states, prior to implementing a strategy to regulate themself.

Bishop et al. (2023) concluded that children who possess a strong ability to draw their attention to their internal sensations, are more likely to simulate behaviours appropriate to their daily occupational environments, such as in the classroom or home.

This book series has been created for a child or young adult and a trusted parent or caregiver to practice noticing different body sensations. This book series has adopted the framework of the ‘Interoception Curriculum’ that was developed by Kelly Mahler. Many Occupational Therapists practice this framework to increase an individual’s interoceptive awareness which in turn, enables a person to self-regulate.

Click the link below to access Caitlin’s journal manuscript:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03080226221128184

To maximise effectiveness:

When reading with your child, make it fun! Learning needs to be fun to ensure it is motivating and exciting. When reading this book, it is recommended you use a magnifying glass and pretend you are detectives, looking for clues to become an expert on how your body is feeling!

When asking your child how their body scan region feels, accept all answers! There are no right or wrong answers. If your child is unsure, talk about and model your own scanned feelings and see if your child can relate or identify anything similar. Provide examples to help solidify your child’s understanding. For example, you could say something along the lines of “When I am feeling angry, I can notice that my hands clench up. Do your hands do this too when you are feeling angry?”. As your child establishes their understanding, you could check this with questions such as “If my hands are clenching up and my feet want to stomp, what do you think I would be feeling?”

Practice the body scan topic twice a day or as much as possible. When introducing a new body scan topic, continue to practice and check in on all previous learnt body scan areas.

I want to know more about Interoception:

To learn more about Interoception visit our interactive model and click on the tile that says ‘Interoception’.

We love being Paediatric OTs as we get to work with our clients and see them flourish in their daily occupations: self-care, productivity and leisure. We work with children to achieve independence. We get to use games and daily activities to help children learn a particular skill or learn alternative ways to do things. We are passionate about providing evidence-based, family-centred supports for children two years of age and older.

We work closely with children, parents and teachers to reduce difficulties with any of the following areas:

• Self-Care: Eating, toileting, dressing, sleeping
• Productivity: Fine and gross motor skills
• Leisure: Play, hobbies and interests

Come and see us, we’d love to help your child grow and thrive in their environments.

 

Our therapists engage in continuing professional development that exceeds our registration requirements by about five times!

We have completed professional development in the following areas:

• Interoception
• Core Assessment and screening
• Trauma informed care
• Positive behaviour support
• Sensory Processing
• Handwriting
• Vestibular assessment and intervention
• Emotional regulation including
• The Zones of regulation program
• Social Skills & Secret Agent Society
• Primitive reflexes
• SOS feeding
• Making sense of mealtimes
• Mental Health First Aid
• Fine Motor and gross motor skills

 

The WHR Layers of Learning has been developed to support parents, caregivers, service providers and educators in understanding how our nervous system develops and how each stage contributes to developing skills for everyday living.

You will see the Layers of Learning pyramid which reflects the 5 layers of learning. Each layer of the pyramid represents a different stage of development. You can click on the title of each layer to view overall details about this stage, as well as each individual skill within that stage.

Each layer includes descriptions of foundational skills important to that stage of development. To learn more about each skill, click on the hyperlink. This will open up a text box that contains a detailed description of that skill, and direct you to tabs that suggest relevant assessments and interventions, that your OT might use to learn more about your abilities for that particular skill.

Click the image below, or visit the following link to use our interactive model:

As parents, we understand the importance of providing the best support and guidance for your child’s development. That’s why we’re excited to offer three informative and invaluable resources for you to download: “Vestibular Astronaut Training,” “Interoception,” and “Coregulation.” Download these by clicking on the parent packs below:

 

Please click the image below to view our Paediatrics brochure.