TPP 352a: Occupational Therapist Kelly Mahler on the Power in Understanding & Supporting Neurodivergent Kids' Interoception Experience
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
33 min
1 speaker
5 chapters
transcribed 9 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is interoception and why does it matter for neurodivergent children?
Hey, it's Debbie. This month on playback Fridays, we're diving into the archives to revisit some of my favorite conversations about occupational therapy and the many ways OTs can support neurodivergent kids. Whether you're new to these conversations or you're listening again with fresh ears, I hope you'll find insights you can put to use right away. I'm Debbie Reber and welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. Does your child ever seem disconnected to their body? Maybe they would completely forget to eat if you didn't remind them because they never experience hunger, or they can play outdoors for hours in freezing weather, but because they're not really noticing how cold it is, they leave the hat, the gloves, and the coat at home.
Or on the flip side, maybe your child is intensely connected to their body. Maybe they experience such strong internal or external body sensations that it's hard for them to pay attention to anything else or it spikes their anxiety or triggers them into fight or flight mode. These are just a few examples of extremes and variances in interoception awareness, which is essentially the language of our bodies. I wanted to explore this concept of interoception and differently wired kids more deeply for the show. So I reached out to Kelly Mahler, an occupational therapist who specializes in interoception and is a co-principal investigator in several research projects pertaining to topics such as interoception, self-regulation, trauma, and autism.
Kelly answered my big questions about interoception, including how it relates to sensory processing differences or SPD, why it's essential that we help our children get to know their body's unique language, and the relationship between ADHD, autism, and interoception. Kelly comes to this conversation with a ton of experience. She's been an occupational therapist for 20 years, and she's the winner of multiple awards, including the 2020 American Occupational Therapy Association Emerging and Innovative Practice Award and a Mom's Choice Gold Medal. This is a fascinating discussion about a topic that is new to this show. I'm so excited to share it with you. So here is my conversation with Kelly Mahler.
Hey, Kelly, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me, Debbie. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, I'm really excited to get into this. I always get very excited when I'm bringing a brand new topic to the show. I'm kind of embarrassed that we haven't discussed interoception as a full theme yet, but it's time and you're the perfect person to talk with about interoception. Before we get into it, I always ask guests to give me a little bit of their story or who they are in the world and connect that to your personal why. Why is this the work that you do and that you care about so much?
Yeah, that's a good question. A very big question. But I am an occupational therapist by trade. I've been practicing for 21 years. Professionally, I've always been really interested in supporting mental health, sensory processing, and emotion regulation. Those were my three biggies, even from a young baby OT who really had no idea what I was doing, but I just knew I was interested in those areas. And As I grew and supported lots of clients in these areas, I always felt like there was something missing, but I had no idea what it was until I learned about interoception. And interoception has completely changed the last decade of my career and how I support my clients and clients. On a personal level, interception has completely changed my own life.
I am so much more connected to my body. I understand myself a lot better. I am a work in progress in many areas, including interception. But I also am a parent to a 13 year old and a 15 year old girl. So I am thick in parenting and feeling lots of feels, which is what interception is all about.
That's great. Yeah. 13 and 15 year old girls is a very real experience, I imagine. Yeah.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is interoception and why does it matter for neurodivergent children?
0:00–6:19
2
How does interoception relate to sensory processing differences (SPD)?
6:19–15:37
3
What are the extremes of interoceptive awareness and how do they look in kids?
15:37–22:36
4
How are ADHD and autism connected to interoceptive challenges?
22:36–29:47
5
What practical strategies can parents use to build a child’s interoceptive awareness?
29:47–33:40
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids