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Introduction

Interoception is sensing internal signals that help an individual feel what is going into his or her body (Marina, 2022). People have 45 senses hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, and sighting where interoception mainly exerts its function. This signalling system helps an individual to understand when the body needs food when it needs rest and when the heart is beating fast. In response to such a sense, an individual develops some kinds of physical and emotional states that are to be noticed either consciously or unconsciously.

Without having an appropriate self-regulating skill children might not be able to understand subtle differences in the way each emotion feels. As opined by Mahsa et al. (2021), interoception has a strong connection with the internal autonomic nervous system of our brain. From the module Learning 1.2, I have learned that the autonomic nervous system is responsible for controlling the subconscious compound of our body, including breathing, reflection, digestion, and organ function. The system can be divided into two aspects parasympathetic (for rest and digest) and sympathetic (for fight and flight).

The purpose of this reflection is to identify a scenario with lived experience regarding an individual having autism. I would discuss a challenging behaviour in a person living with Autism in this regard. I would see myself as the educator for such special children who are facing the issue and recommend strategies to develop self-regulating skills in this reflection report.

Scenario I Choose

I would like to play my role as an educator in a special school in Victoria. In this case, I am selecting a girl 10 years of age who has an issue tolerating high noise and I will refer to the girl as Maria. With the help of this reflection, I will discuss how she copes with such a situation and how she behaves when she faces high noise. She likes to play ludo but when she faces high noise, she becomes unable to control her emotions and starts reacting badly. In his reflection, I would discuss the challenging behaviour of Maria living with Autism. Based on literary sources I will also discuss and recommend strategies to develop self-regulation skills for her to manage her emotional control.

Challenging Behavior of a Person Who lives with Autism

Self-regulation is the capability to act in long-term interest on something consistent with the deepest values. As mentioned by Ahmad et al. (2021), self-regulation is a big challenge for children with autism and it is quite difficult to regulate one's feelings and react to things occurring in the natural environment. Maria likes to play ludo in a peaceful and silent environment but when she faces high noise, she becomes angry and starts to self-harm. As Maria has been identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is quite difficult for her to control her aggression, anger, and self-injury when she is in a noisy environment, especially when she likes playing ludo. ASD impairment that Maria has includes the issue in managing communication, good reaction words, social interaction and behaviours which are restricted (Simin & Hosein, 2020). Considering all these issues, it has been identified that controlling low restrictions and calming down to such an overwhelming situation is difficult for Maria and she needs to learn her self-regulation skills to overcome all these issues.

Contemporary Strategy to Develop Self-regulation Skill

Considering the situation, as a teacher of the special education school in Victoria where Maria is studying, I have developed certain strategies. All these strategies are designed to control the emotions of living with Autism; those strategies are mentioned below:

Development of Emotional Levels Chart

To make a person with autism like Maria able to regulate her own emotions, I started creating a visual aid depicting the different levels of emotions (Zhaoxing, Hannah & Robin, 2022). I marked the chart level as very upset, upset, little upset and feeling good so that Maria could raise her interest in understanding her situation based on that marking. I have also guided Maria to write down a title regarding her emotional state like this "Now I am feeling good”.

Teaching About Different Coping Strategies

I have also identified a certain kind of strategy as a teacher of a special education school in Victoria to make Maria able to deal with her autism (Maria et al. 2022). In this stage, I learned Maria to first identify her feelings, whether she is feeling upset, very upset, a little upset or feeling good. If she is feeling very upset then she might follow strategies like taking help from others, talking to a friend, asking for help, walking away, letting it go, counting from 1 to 20, letting it go and thinking of a compromise.

Discussion of Appropriate Reactions

Maria must understand which emotion falls under which chart that I have created. Once she understands, I can talk with her or discuss it with her and tell me about the appropriate reaction she can show against the situation. I think a cool and calm discussion can help Maria understand her self-regulating issue and make her able to further regulate it efficiently.

Communicate Expectations Calmly

Communicating expectations is a great way to create self-regulating skills among children having autism. As stated by Mahsa et al. (2021), think communicating expectations that people surrounding Maria could help her understand the importance of her self-regulating behaviour. Such calm communication would also help Maria to recognize the situation effectively and develop her emotional regulation.

Conclusion

From the overall discussion, it can be concluded that interoception in children helps in developing a self-regulating character to control their behaviour and emotions. Children with ASD like Maria are associated with difficulty in controlling their aggression, anger, and self-injury, especially in noisy environments. Without having an appropriate self-regulating character, it is not possible to develop self-regulation skills. For this reason, certain strategies have been identified that could help Maria to regulate her own emotions. These strategies include the creation of an emotional levels chart, calm discussion about expectations, discussion of appropriate reactions and following coping strategies.

Reference list

Ahmad, N. S., Putri, A. J., Nazrun, S., Juriza, I., Norazlin, K. N., & Isa, N. M. (2021). Association between viral infections and risk of autistic disorder: an overview, 18(2817), 2817–2817.

B, C. P., Zhaoxing, P., Hannah, C., & Robin, L. G. (2022). Self-regulation mediates therapeutic horseback riding social functioning outcomes in youth with autism spectrum disorder, 10.

Mahsa, B. A., Shahrokh, A., Naeimeh, M., & Salman, A. (2021). Severity of personality disorder symptom in parents of children with autistic disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and normal control, 8(3), 128–139.

Maria, E., Maria, S., Sofia, G., & Eleni, B. (2022). Parental stress and children’s self-regulation problems in families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 10(4), 4–4. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10010004

Marina, M. P. (2022). Features of communication skills in preschool children with autistic disorder, 2(6)(2(6), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.55523/27822559_2022_2(6)_20

Simin, A., & Hosein, S. (2020). Interventions for the treatment of self-regulation disorders in children with autism: a narrative review, 38(590), 655–663.

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