Identifying Feeling Sick
How to Teach Special Ed Students
How are you feeling today? Are you hungry? Do you feel cold? Are you happy?
It’s easy to answer these questions when we can recognize our feelings or emotions. We know what our body tells us, and we are aware when something is wrong.
This is done with the help of a little-known but essential sensory system in our body, our eighth sense called interoception.
But what about our children or students with developmental disabilities?
Let me share with you how interoception works for special education students and what I do to help my students become more aware of their bodies and emotions, especially when they are feeling unwell.
What is interoception?
Interoception is the sensory system that tells our brain what’s happening inside our body.
For example, if we’re hungry, we may feel our stomach rumbling. Or if our bladder is full, we will feel the urge to pee.
Interoception also includes being aware of internal organ functions like heartbeat and breathing. It’s also responsible for telling us when something is wrong or when we’re feeling unwell.
In addition, this sense also affects our interpretation of emotions.
Have you noticed how when your body has low energy, it often happens when you’re sad? Or when you were happy, you were also feeling active? How about that time when your heart was beating fast? Were you nervous or excited?
Interoception helps us read and interpret the signals that our body tells us. The sense helps us process what’s happening with our body and the emotions that accompany it.
When our interoceptive system is working correctly, we can self-regulate and manage our emotions.
If we’re feeling cold, we’ll add layers of clothing. If we’re thirsty, we’ll drink. In the same way, if we’re sad, we’ll do something that makes us happy to feel better.
Because of interception, we know if there’s a problem with our body and what we can do to solve it.
But what happens if the body signals aren’t clear and we don’t understand it? That’s the challenge with our special education students.
How Does Interoception Work
For Special Education Students?
Kids and adults with developmental disabilities (like Autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome, etc.) may have difficulty making sense of what’s happening inside their bodies.
They find it difficult to listen to their body signals, so it’s harder to tell how they are feeling. They may not be able to tell when they’re tired, hungry, sad, or angry.
This is because the development of interoception in our neurodivergent students can slow down or stop.
And if the sensory system isn’t fully developed, they may find it difficult to tell how their body is feeling or when something is not normal. And since they don’t recognize the body signals, our students cannot self-manage or respond to biological needs such as thirst and hunger.
People with underdeveloped interoception don’t know when to realize that there is a problem with their bodies until that problem is out of control.
It can be as simple as not knowing they’re hungry until their stomach starts to hurt or something more serious like not recognizing a headache until the pain becomes too much to bear.
Understanding Sensory Profiles
The first thing to help improve the body awareness of neurodivergent students is to first assess their sensory profiles and interoceptive ability.
Because of underdeveloped interoception, people with developmental disabilities experience pain and other sensations differently.
Take for example two people wearing a shirt with a tag on. One of them may feel irritated with the tag, and the other may not even notice it.
When it comes to pain tolerance, some may be insensitive to a hurting body part and others may be extremely sensitive.
Once we’ve understood each profile, we can effectively support their mental well-being and create better coping strategies for self-regulation and body awareness.
How to Teach Special Education Students to Recognize When They Are Sick or Unwell
Aside from the difference in how our special education students recognize their feelings, they also differ in how they communicate their discomfort. Some are verbal while others are not.
So how can we teach them to recognize and be able to communicate when they are unwell?
Here are a few things we can do to teach our students how to respond when something is wrong with their bodies.
Identify their Body Parts
We can start by teaching our special education students to identify their body parts.
We can simply give them vocal instructions like, “Touch your _____” for external body parts or use flashcards including internal organs.
Then, to associate this lesson with interoception, we can ask them to map out feelings or sensations on their body part.
This helps them identify and communicate how their body part is feeling.
Help them Identify when Something Is Wrong
The next step is to teach our children or students the concept of what’s wrong. We can use pictures that have obvious mistakes like a stop sign colored green or a dog living underwater.
Another option is to perform actions or use objects incorrectly. Use a toothbrush as a comb. Drink from an upside-down cup. The examples are endless.
Once the concept of what’s wrong is established, we can relate this activity to identifying when something is wrong with the body.
Use situational stories like, “When Thomas bumped his knee on the table, he held his knee and jumped up and down. What’s wrong?”
Our student or child would learn how to analyze the action and how the character must be feeling.
This lesson will also result in the students realizing that when something is wrong, it’s a problem that needs to be solved.
We can then relate this to what we need to do when we are in pain or not feeling well.
Teach them "Feeling Sick" Scenarios & Vocabulary
It’s best to describe to our neurodivergent students what being sick is and what is usually done when it happens.
We can use pictures or stories showing simple sicknesses like headaches, fever, or cramps. Another way is to model by example or have scenario activities.
One resource you can use is the bundle of digital activities covering scenarios on Feeling Sick Problem-Solving. Or, use the task card version if you prefer that format.
This bundle is helpful in teaching special education students what to do in different feeling-sick scenarios that are very common with young people.
It has activities for common symptoms or conditions including:
The common scenarios in this bundle offer practice for my students and they can help your children or students, too!
I use this bundle together with learning first aid and first aid kits. It also helps me in creating problem-solving and health-related goals for my students which I can easily do with the help of my Picture Supported Transition Assessment.
Observe Their Cues
Because we can’t always expect our students with disabilities to be communicative and responsive, our last but equally important step is to observe their cues and model for them ourselves.
“Is my student sweating?”
“What’s their body temperature?”
These are a few of the many things you can observe. Sometimes, our students’ bodies will show us when something is wrong, even if our students cannot.
We can also look for unusual behavior.
If our student doesn’t seem to be enjoying an activity that they normally love to do and actively participate in, this could be an indicator of a problem. Or, perhaps they are not able to do an activity that was previously not difficult for them.
Now, this part can be challenging so it’s best if we have an assessment checklist for each child that includes their capabilities across many life skills domains. This way, we’ll be more aware if something is wrong with our students.
Check out this Life Skills Rating Checklist for Teachers & Parents.
Support Our Students'
Interoceptive Abilities
There is huge power in knowing what your body is doing and feeling. Interoception helps us respond to our body’s signals in the right way for us to be more comfortable and live a better life.
That’s why it’s essential to help our neurodivergent students learn about them. This CAN be done through practice and continuous support.
Let’s remember to be patient and compassionate as we help our students and children improve their interoception skills and have a better understanding of their bodies and emotions.
I hope that the activities I suggested above can help with that!
