Tier 1 Interoception Interventions in an Elementary School

Abstract

Interoception, or the perception of one’s internal body signals, is a building block for emotion regulation and may be protective against adverse health experiences. Interoception is not innate but is rather a skill that must be learned as a person ages. While elementary schools tackle many facets of development, there are minimal interventions to address interoception. The main site is an elementary school in a high poverty neighborhood that offers a large amount of support to students in many areas but did not have any formal interoception interventions. This capstone project developed a tier 1 interoception intervention, piloted the intervention, educated teachers on interoception, and presented the intervention to staff members to address continued use of the intervention. The program that developed was a 6-session program implemented over 6 weeks adapted from The Interoception Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Mindful Self-Regulation for use in the inclusion general education elementary classroom. The program showed weak quantitative evidence but strong qualitative evidence showing the program was successful at addressing interoception in the participating classrooms by increasing body awareness, vocabulary for expressing needs and emotions, and increasing related communication. Along with the success of the pilot intervention, facilitators and barriers to continued implementation were found and analyzed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Facilitators to future implementation were found to include the innovation, the compatibility, resources and connections in the inner setting, and the need of the individuals. Barriers to success included structural characteristics of the inner setting and the capability and motivation of implementing individuals. This project details the development of a tier 1 interoception intervention for elementary school students.