In episode PHQP_0028 Interoception And School Readiness, Jeff discusses the interoceptive system and its importance in school readiness.

Watch Now: PHQP_0028 Interoception And School Readiness

Welcome to the Playvolution HQ podcast. I’m Jeff Johnson. Thanks for pushing play on with the show.

So, I discovered something the other day. I, I, there we go. I discovered steak cut bacon.

Now, look, listeners, if you knew about steak cut bacon and didn’t tell me about it, I’m, I’m very angry with you. If, if steak cut bacon is a new thing for you, you’ll be just as amazed as I was. I was doing my online shopping and I decided, hey, let’s get a little bit crazy and move away from our regular bacon selection and see what other kind of bacon opportunities the world has to offer us.

I found steak cut bacon. A pound of this stuff is four slices. So, each slice is like, like half an inch thick.

And we, we, we partook, me and, me and the wife, Tasha, partook of the steak cut bacon earlier today. And it’s delightful. So, what’s that got to do with anything? Well, the world is full of amazing stuff and we don’t know it all.

And we should be open to, to checking things out and trying new things and, and looking for new things to try, I guess. And if you haven’t tried steak cut bacon, you’re in for a, it’s just, it’s just thick meat candy. Anyway, on with the show.

Topic one and the only topic again for another episode, interoception and school readiness. So, the interoceptive system is a big part of school readiness, but it doesn’t get much attention. Early learning programs spend a lot of time talking about, I don’t know, knowing how to write your name and being able to, to name the colors and those kind of things.

Those all seem, seem like school readiness things, but this is a very primordial, basic, simple school readiness thing that we often rush through in early learning programs and don’t pay much attention to. So the interoceptive system is a, one of the eight sensory systems we’ve talked to. We’ve mentioned it on previous episodes.

It’s really about sensing the body’s inner signals. So we’ve got all of these sensory systems inside of our body that are sending messages to our brains. And this kind of encompasses all of those.

So this is internal signals that we’re dealing with here and how to interpret the body’s interpret, how to interpret the body’s inner signals. And so it’s not only wearing them up and being aware of them, but interpreting them, figuring out what they mean. And we’ll get to that in a little bit more, more detail in a moment.

So think for example, around your belly button, we can have a sensory experience in that six or eight inches around your belly button. And it might mean you need to eat because you’re hungry. And it might mean you’re feeling anxious or stressed.

Maybe you need to relax. And it might mean you need to poop. And it might mean you need to pee.

And it might mean you’re getting sick and you need to throw up. And those sensations are in the same area. And the internal signals are very similar.

And we can pretty much learn to discriminate against between them and tell the difference between them. And you get to the point where you know, oh, I’ve got to go pee or, oh, I need a grilled cheese sandwich. And being able to make those determinations when you’re five, six years old and then heading off to kindergarten makes you a delight to have in the classroom and a happier student as well.

It’s good for the teacher and it’s good for the student. The problem is learning to differentiate between those senses to make sense of them, to define them, to break them down takes practice. And a lot of times kids aren’t getting the practice they need in their early learning settings.

Some other things interoceptive, the interoceptive system handles. Hunger, fullness, thirst. You feel that dryness in the throat or the mouth.

Heartbeat. There’s a difference between your heartbeat when you’re sitting at the arts and crafts table, finger painting, or whether you’re outside being Batman and you feel the difference in your heartbeat. Bladder and bowel signals, like I mentioned a moment ago.

Pain detection. Emotional cues. That’s that kind of internal emotional feel we have, whether it’s stress or anxiety, those kinds of things.

We have those internal signals. Sometimes it’s like barbed wire and butterflies in the belly. Changes in our breathing.

Changes in body temperature and fatigue and energy levels. And all those kinds of things are internally signaled and the information is sent to our brains and we are aware of them and can make use of them as we navigate the world. Interoceptive system develops through active play and exploration, which I know this is going to be a shock for anybody that’s listened to more than one episode of this podcast, but to help children be school-ready and to help them build their interoceptive systems, they need to play and explore.

Children need big blocks of uninterrupted time for self-directed play and exploration in supportive environments. And if we give them those things, the wiring happens because that’s just how humans are built. We don’t need to sit down and do interoceptive lessons with groups of kids.

Now, it might not hurt to have some conversations about those kind of interoceptive related things, either with groups or individuals in small groups or with individuals. Conversations about how you feel your heart pounding after running around in the playground or how you can tell you’re thirsty because your throat and your mouth get dry. Those kind of things.

Having those conversations builds awareness. We don’t need to do a lot of lessening at kids. We just need to get them out there and get moving and building their bodies also builds the sensory system because movement sparks sensation.

And that’s I mean, if you’re looking for a bumper sticker phrase about how we can support children’s sensory development, not just interoception, but all of the sensory systems, movement sparks sensation is not a bad idea for a bumper sticker along those lines because movement builds all of those sensory systems. It wires them up to the brain and helps us learn to understand them and integrate them into our decision making and activities almost seamlessly. Kids who don’t move don’t wire these systems and that’s where a lot of kids are struggling now because they’re very sedentary at home because they’re glued to a tablet or a video game and they’re not outside running around and playing with the neighbor kids or they’re very sedentary in their early learning settings.

There’s lots of circle time and lots of sit down activities instead of the big body active movement that they need to develop these sensory systems. Another, it’s a little bit long for a bumper sticker, but less activity equals weaker connections. And that’s generally kind of true across the board for the sensory systems.

If we don’t use them, they don’t connect to the brain and then the brain isn’t working as efficiently. The brain’s not getting the information it needs to navigate the world. And what we want for kids is for them to grow up and be able to navigate the world, to be able to survive and thrive in their culture.

And so we need to move more, more play, more exploration, child-directed, child-led. Teachers want students who are able to read those signals, those internal signals. Teachers want students who know if they need to go to the bathroom or if they’re hungry or if they’re feeling sick because it makes the teacher’s job a lot easier when those things happen.

And so this is why a well-developed interoceptive system is very important for school readiness. Strong interoception leads to happier teachers and students. Students are happier because they have more self-awareness.

They are more independent when they understand those signals. They know when they need to go get a drink of water and they know when they need to sit down a little bit because they’re getting a little bit winded from running around being Batman or, you know, whatever it is. And so everybody wins if we in the early learning world spend a little bit more time on big blocks of uninterrupted time for self-directed play and exploration.

Not only future teachers, but current teachers, you win also when kids are getting that activity and movement because you’re reaping the benefits of those strength and sensory systems as well. All right, so that’s enough of that. There’s some links related to things in the episode notes.

Let’s wrap this thing up. Explorations are only sight changes. So there’s a little commercial for the stuff that I do.

I guess I throw in here sometimes. I just spent a week updating the Playvolution HQ website. Playvolutionhq.com is where I do online trainings and where you can find information about booking me for in-person gigs.

I pretty much do a training there every most, you know, three to four times a month. And then you can book me for your group if you want to, either online or in person. But I’ve made a bunch of changes there.

The site is running quicker and is more user-friendly. And so if you haven’t been there or you haven’t been there for a while, you might want to check out the changes. It’s much appreciated.

Amazon idea for this month. Somebody’s thinking ahead. Somebody used my Amazon link to get themselves this four-piece fall coffee mug set.

They also did pull up a picture of it. They also got a Christmas set. So they’re thinking six months in advance for the coming fall and winter season.

And I like that. I wish I was that kind of preparer. I’m just not.

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Just, you know, listen to a podcast or see an article at Playvolution HQ that you like. Sharing it is much appreciated. Next week, next week, we’re going to get into the sample fitness standards I said I was going to, excuse me, come up with.

We talked about this in episode 23. Fit for Care was the name of the episode. And I said I’d come back with some fitness standard recommendations for early learning people because there really isn’t isn’t anything out there and there probably should be.

So I just wanted to throw some things out there for conversation. Way back next week, talk about that. Dad Joke of the Week to wrap things up.

Well, why did the computer go to the doctor? Jeeves, do you know? Why did the computer go to the doctor? It had a virus. That’s kind of weak. That’s kind of lame.

I should have higher standards for my dad jokes. But they can’t all be gold-plated dad jokes. It had a virus, computer virus.

Get it? This here, oh, we went one slide too far. This here has been the Playvolution HQ podcast. Back soon with another episode.

Thanks for listening. Why? Jeeves said it had a virus. This has been an Explorations Early Life.

That’s the way I groaned when I heard that joke.

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