The Foundation of Self-Regulation: Our “Hidden” Eighth Sense, Interoception
As a parent or caregiver, you may have tried everything: calming strategies, sensory tools, deep breathing exercises. But still, your child seems to explode without warning… or completely shut down. You might wonder:
“Why can’t my child use the tools we’ve practiced?”
“Why do they go from 0 to 100 so fast?”
The answer might lie deeper than behavior—it might lie inside the body, in something called interoception.
What Is Interoception?
Interoception is often called our “eighth sense.” It helps us feel, notice, and interpret signals from inside our bodies—things like:
A racing heart
A growling stomach
Butterflies before a test
The urge to use the bathroom
Shallow breathing when anxious
For children, developing interoceptive awareness is essential for emotional regulation. We can’t manage what we can’t feel.
What Can Disrupt Interoception?
If you notice that your child only notices they’re hungry once they’re starving, or only notices they have to use the bathroom once it’s an emergency, you might also notice that they don’t know how they’re feeling until it becomes too intense to control. If children struggle with interoception, they likely don’t feel or don’t understand their internal body cues until those cues are “screaming” at them—meaning everything feels urgent and it feels too late to engage in regulation.
Many things can impact interoception, including:
Neurodivergence. Kids with ADHD, autism, or other types of neurodivergence may experience that their internal sensations are “muted,” making it hard to feel or notice them until they’re incredibly intense. The opposite can happen as well, where internal sensations feel so intense for neurodivergent kids that it can become overstimulating.
Trauma. Trauma means our system is overloaded and focused solely on survival. Ongoing trauma or traumatic stress reactions after a trauma can lead to chronic dysregulation. Over time, constant stress can feel overwhelming for our nervous system, and it goes into a collapse or shutdown response in an act of self-preservation. If we get stuck in a shutdown, or hypo-arousal, response, we start to feel numb and unable to feel emotions and sensations. Leaving our bodies and ignoring our own sensations and needs often starts as a protective strategy, but over time, it can lead to feeling lost.
Learned behaviors. Whether kids experience their emotions quite intensely, or they’ve been exposed to environments where it hasn’t been encouraged or felt safe to listen to their own bodies, they may learn to tune themselves out over time. For example, teachers are often tasked with managing classrooms with a large number of students, which means they have to prioritize safety and order over fostering interoception. Things like repeatedly not being able to go get a drink of water when you’re thirsty, not being able to use the bathroom when you need to, or not being able to eat a snack when you’re hungry can lead to tuning out your internal sensations so you can assimilate and follow the rules.
Why This Makes Regulation Difficult
Regulation starts with awareness. If a child doesn’t notice what they’re feeling in their body, they can’t respond to it in a helpful way.
They may know the “right tools”—like taking deep breaths or using a fidget—but if they don’t sense that they’re starting to get overwhelmed, those tools won’t get used in time.
A lot of social-emotional curriculum focuses on recognizing and labeling feelings, but if children haven’t learned how those emotions can feel in the body and practice tuning into their internal body cues, they’re missing a foundational piece of regulation.
Healing Begins with Connection—To the Body
In Synergetic Play Therapy, we understand that rebuilding interoceptive awareness is foundational. Before a child can regulate independently, they must:
Learn to feel safe in their body again
Explore sensations through play and movement
Practice naming body signals and connecting them to emotions
Experience co-regulation with a trusted adult
Through consistent, attuned relationships and playful exploration, children can slowly reconnect to their inner world—and begin using tools with more confidence and success. In sessions, children learn through modeling and mindfulness activities to start tuning into their body sensations so they can use them as a guide. Interventions are titrated so kids feel safe—if children aren’t used to tuning into their bodies or have learned to use numbing as a protective strategy, embodiment can feel intense. Taking it slow and following a child’s pace ensures learning happens without emotional flooding.
A Gentle Reminder for Parents
If your child struggles with emotional regulation, it’s not a lack of discipline or effort—it may be that their internal radar system just isn’t working the way it should. And that’s not their fault.
Support, safety, and connection go a long way in helping kids tune in and thrive. Helping a child feel from the inside out is the first step toward lasting regulation.
Want More Support?
If you’re curious about how play therapy can help your child develop interoception and emotional regulation, I’d love to connect. Click the button below to schedule a free 15-minute intro call.