Interoception, The Eighth Sense: Impact on Self-Regulation, Social Participation and Emotional Well -Being

Kelly Mahler MS, OTR/L, earned an MS in Occupational Therapy as well as a Post-Professional Pediatric Certificate from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. She is currently a doctoral student at Misericordia University. Kelly has been an occupational therapist for 17 years, serving school-aged children and adults. Kelly is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA. She is actively involved in several research projects pertaining to interoception. Kelly is an international speaker and presents frequently on topics related to the seven books she has authored:

• The Interoception Curriculum: A Step-by-Step Framework for Developing Mindful Self-Regulation
• Interoception Activity Cards
• Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System
• The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness
• Sensory Issues and High Functioning Autism (with Myles and Robbins) —winner of National Parenting Publications Bronze Medal
• Destination Friendship: Developing Social Skills for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders or Other Social Challenges (with Benton, Hollis, and Womer)
• Hygiene and Related Behaviors for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders — winner of Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal

What is Interoception?

Interoception is an important sensory system that helps us to feel internal body signals like a full bladder, growling stomach, tense muscles or speeding heart. Research indicates that our ability to clearly notice and interpret these internal body signals enables us to accurately identify and manage how we feel: Are we Anxious? Getting Frustrated? Hungry? Full? In pain? Needing the bathroom? Interoceptive differences are very common in a variety of individuals including those with autism, trauma disorders, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depression and behavioral challenges causing significant difficulty in identifying and managing the way they feel. Interoception is emerging as a key factor in the development of healthy social-emotional function and underlies specific skills such as self-regulation, positive behavior, language development and social participation.

Course description

Enhance the effectiveness of your current strategies and supports using the latest evidence-based research on interoception.  This course will help you gain an understanding of this important sense and use this information when supporting areas such as self-regulation, language development, positive behavior, and social participation.  Evidence-based strategies to assess and improve interoception will be the focus of this course.  Highlights from The Interoception Curriculum, a step-by-step framework for improving interoception will also be included.  Participants will learn how to adapt strategies to effectively meet a variety of needs and improve outcomes. The strategies presented in this course are effective for use in many different settings including home, schools, community and clinic.

Learning Objectives/Outcome

Participants will be able to:

1. Define and understand interoception, our 8th sensory system, as well as recent research in effectiveness
2. Identify at least 2 methods for assessing interoception
3. Describe at least 3 strategies for building interoception
4. Adapt at least 1 interoception building strategy to meet your specific needs

 Cost is $150 pp lunch and light breakfast included.  $50 for .6 AOTA CEUs pp.

Register Now! 

If reasonable accommodation are needed, please call or email the Autism Society Inland Empire at least 10 days prior to the event. A cancellation fee of $25 of registration costs will be applied for cancellations received between up to 1 week before the event; 50% of the registration will will be refundable 7 days prior to th event.  Cancelations lessthan 7 days are not refundable.