Getting Started - Interoception for Speech and Language Therapy

a woman teaching a child with flash cards

Interoception, nicknamed the ‘eighth sense’, helps us to perceive a wide variety of sensations within our bodies. For example, a growling stomach, full bladder, relaxed muscles, dry mouth, sore ears, pounding heart, or sweaty skin are all sensations some might experience because of interoception.

These interoceptive sensations provide vital clues to what emotion or body needs we are feeling. For example, our body sensations can be clues to thirst, hunger, sleepiness, need for the toilet, pain, body temperature, anxiety, or excitement.

Because interoception helps us be clear on how our body feels, it becomes a vital aspect of successfully regulating and communicating our needs and emotions.

Given that speech and language therapists are the experts in human communication, and interoception provides a valuable foundation for the communication process, interoception becomes a crucial consideration. For example, if a client has an unclear interoception experience, it can be an unfair expectation for them to communicate how they feel or what they need (e.g., “I’m hungry” or “I need quiet” or “Drink please”). In other words, if you are not clear on what you are feeling, how can you communicate it?

Therefore, by helping each client explore and understand their own inner feels, it provides a platform for building language around their inner feels and that eventually supports their communication of their inner feels in a way that allows them to be understood by others.

Check Out Our Interoception Resources

Why Should Speech-Language Pathologists Incorporate Interoception Activities?

If you are a speech and language therapist and support any of the following areas, then you might want to consider including interoception activities (if you are not already). This list is not exhaustive but includes a few common areas of participation that are influenced by interoception:

Social-Emotional Learning (e.g., feeling and understanding our body sensations, which provides the clues needed for identifying our emotions. This understanding, in turn, helps us communicate how we feel to others.)

Emotion Literacy (e.g., feeling body sensations and using them to give emotion-word meaning from the inside-out)

Managing Health Needs (e.g., feeling details of health symptoms in order to communicate them to others)

Sensory Regulation (e.g., feeling the need for a break from specific sensory stimulation and identifying what stimulation is causing the feeling of sensory overwhelm. This recognition, in turn, influences the ability to communicate what is needed)

Affective emotion regulation (e.g., feeling the difference between emotionally regulated or dysregulated and communicating needs to others)

Many people experience a breakdown in interoceptive awareness, which can affect all of the above areas and many more. These interoception breakdowns can be hidden and can often go unsupported and misunderstood. As an SLP, incorporating interoception activities into an affirming practice can help your clients have more meaningful outcomes.

Teaching Emotions from the Inside-Out: Interoception Can Improve Communication

Perhaps one of the most surprising facts about interoception is that for many people, interoceptive body sensations give concrete meaning to emotion words. For example, many people come to understand what the word frustrated means based on their inner body sensations or signals that they experience.

So, for me, how would I define the word frustrated? It’s when my shoulder and face muscles feel tense, my ears have a buzzing sensation, and my brain feels stuck. That has become the definition of frustration for me. My body signals have helped me come to understand what that word means. And because we are all so very different in our inner experiences, my understanding of the word frustrated is likely different from the next person.

If interoceptive sensations help ground the concept of emotions words—or in other words, we come to understand emotions from the inside-out– isn’t this a mismatch for how we tend to teach emotions? Emotion flashcards, emotion bingo, and emotion role-playing, oh my! We are missing the mark (myself included)! We attempt to give meaning to emotions via facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice (which I’ve done!). But all of these techniques can give a false and/or rigid understanding of emotions (a smiling face does not always mean happy).

Therefore, by helping clients notice and interpret their own interoceptive body sensations, we can help them better understand and communicate their emotions. This concept is true for affective emotions like happiness or fear, as well as homeostatic emotions like pain, hunger, and thirst. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can help clients develop a more accurate and flexible understanding of their emotions by starting at the body and focusing on noticing interoceptive body sensations. This inside-out approach to teaching emotions can improve communication and emotional regulation.

Learn More About Emotion Language and Interoception

The Influence of Interoception on Language and Communication: Lessons from Alexithymia

Alexithymia is characterized by the difficulty in identifying, understanding, and expressing one’s own emotions. Individuals with alexithymia often struggle to distinguish between various emotional states and may find it challenging to communicate their feelings to others. This trait can impact emotional regulation and overall well-being.

Research has found that alexithymics often experience unclear interoceptive awareness. This fact makes a lot of sense, given that our interoceptive body signals provide us with valuable information about our affective and homeostatic emotions. If there is a disconnect with these interoceptive body signals, then emotional clues we need might be missing or unreliable.

When it comes to understanding and communicating how we feel, working towards a clearer interoceptive experience is key. Therefore, incorporating interoception activities into speech and language therapy can effectively support alexithymia and improve emotional awareness and communication.

Demo 001 – Interoception and Speech and Language Therapists

Why Should Speech-Language Pathologists Incorporate Interoception Activities?

Teaching Emotions from the Inside-Out: Interoception Can Improve Communication

The Diversity of Interoception: The Language (or No Language) We Use to Describe Our Inner Experience

The Influence of Interoception on Language and Communication: Lessons from Alexithymia

Learn More with Our Interoception Resources