The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness – 3rd Edition

What is the Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness?

You might know that enhancing interoceptive awareness is good for all people, including your clients, but it can be confusing to know what exactly what to do, where to start, and/or how to do it.  The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness helps you start from the beginning, providing 3 sub-assessments that can be flexibly used to allow you gain valuable understanding regarding interoceptive experience in a variety of clients.

Since we all have such different inner experiences, it becomes important to use measures that help us to gain insight into each learner’s unique interoceptive awareness. Are they noticing and understanding their inner body sensations? Do they experience a few body signals that are too small? TOO BIG? How does their current interoceptive understanding promote their success and/or create barriers in helping them to achieve their personal goals?  The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness will help you begin to explore this with the clients you serve.

What are the 3 Sub-Assessments included?

The following three sub-assessments are provided to provide a flexible approach when seeking to understand a client’s interoceptive experience:

The Interoceptive Awareness Interview (self-report): A series of open-ended and Likert-Scale questions used to gain information about a learner’s experience noticing and understanding body signals.

The Assessment of Self-Regulation + Picture Cards (self-report): A series of picture cards and corresponding questions used to gain information about a learner’s perspective and experience regulating a variety of emotions. Seeks to gain insight regarding body signals, emotions, and regulation actions.

The Caregiver Questionnaire for Interoceptive Awareness (observation/caregiver report): A questionnaire designed to gain interoception-related information from a caregiver or someone that knows the learner well. Questions explore a variety of interoception experiences and observations related to emotions such as hunger, thirst, toileting, anxiety, etc.

Because interoception is so subjective and unique to everyone it is always best to ask the learner first. Go right to the source—ask questions—provide self-report methods that meet their communication style–seek to understand their experience. They are the expert after all. Our first two sub-assessments, the Interoceptive Awareness Interview and The Assessment of Self-Regulation, provide a framework for nurturing self-report in clients with a variety of ages and communication/learning styles.

However, in cases when a learner might not be able to offer insight into their experience, we can use alternatives such as careful observation and caregiver report. When using these alternatives, we need to use the findings carefully, because it is very difficult to accurately understand the inner subjective experience of another person.  However, using our third sub-assessment, the Caregiver Questionnaire for Interoceptive Awareness, we can make interoception-informed ‘best guesses’ that may help us get one step closer to understanding the ‘surface or observable behaviors’. This in turn can help to drive more effective and meaningful supports that honor and validate the learner’s experience.

What comes in the assessment kit?

Kit includes the instructional manual, 25 assessment forms and 12 picture cards. For a restock of assessment forms only, they can be purchased separately in quantities of 25 and 50.

Who can I use the Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness with?

Everyone: Interoception is an everyone thing. Whenever you are seeking to understand another person’s inner experience, this assessment can be your go-to. Perhaps you might even find it helpful to use the assessment to discover more about your own personal interoceptive understanding.
Ages: A variety of ages from preschool through adulthood.
Conditions/diagnoses: A variety of conditions/diagnoses including autism, ADHD, trauma history, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc. But please don’t get stuck on labels! This bears repeating…interoception is an everyone thing!
Communication: The assessment can be adapted for use with a variety of communication styles. If a learner prefers to write, draw, color, act out their responses, then please provide the chance to do so (and encourage it!). This is outlined in the manual.

Where can the Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness be used?

The assessment is currently used in many different settings including schools, therapy clinics, and mental health facilities. The assessment is also used in the home setting by many providers and/or caregivers seeking to understand their learner/loved one on a deeper level.

How can the Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness be used in conjunction with the Interoception Curriculum?

The assessment is designed to be used as a method for gathering insights as well as a baseline starting point regarding a learner’s current interoception relationship. The information gained in the assessment can be used to inform meaningful use of The Interoception Curriculum, including any specific areas of focus or potential adaptations that the learner may benefit from using. The assessment may also be helpful in establishing a baseline, or where a learner is at in their interoception understanding prior to interoception-based supports and then can be used again as a follow-up, after the use of the curriculum to measure a learner’s inner growth.

Complete kit includes the instructional manual, 25 assessment forms and 12 picture cards. For a restock of assessment forms, quantities are available in packs of 25 and 50.