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Associations Between Interoception and Sensory Processing in Preschool Children
Abdullah Furkan Cangi1, Gonca Bumin2
1Department of Occupational Therapy, Istanbul Medipol University Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey.
Occupational Therapy in Health Care
|July 17, 2026
Summary
Caregiver reports show that interoceptive functioning, or body awareness, is linked to sensory processing in preschoolers. Better body awareness in children is associated with fewer sensory challenges.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Child Development
Background:
- Interoception, the sense of the internal bodily state, is crucial for self-regulation and cognitive development.
- Sensory processing characteristics influence a child's interaction with their environment.
- Understanding the interplay between interoception and sensory processing in early childhood is vital for identifying developmental patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between caregiver-reported interoceptive functioning and sensory processing characteristics in typically developing preschool children.
- To identify specific dimensions of interoception that are most strongly associated with sensory processing patterns.
- To explore age-related differences in these associations.
Main Methods:
- Caregiver-reported data were collected from 240 typically developing preschool children (aged 2-5 years).
- Interoceptive functioning was assessed using the Dynamic Metacognitive Interoception Measure (DMIM).
- Sensory processing characteristics were evaluated using the Sensory Processing Measure-Preschool (SPM-P).
- Statistical analyses included correlation, hierarchical regression, and machine-learning methods.
Main Results:
- A significant inverse association was found between interoceptive functioning and sensory processing characteristics across multiple domains.
- Specific interoceptive dimensions, namely awareness and discrimination, showed moderate negative correlations with tactile processing and social participation.
- Older children exhibited slightly higher interoceptive scores and lower sensory processing difficulties.
- Machine-learning models corroborated regression findings, explaining substantial variance (R² ≈ .31–.41).
Conclusions:
- Caregiver-reported interoceptive functioning and sensory processing characteristics are inversely related in preschool-aged children.
- The findings highlight the interconnectedness of body awareness and sensory experiences in early development.
- These insights contribute to a descriptive understanding of how interoceptive and sensory profiles co-occur in a community sample of young children.
Related Concept Videos
01:11Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System
The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
01:30Information Processing Approach
The information-processing theory of cognitive development centers on fundamental mental processes, including attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. Researchers in this field examine how cognitive abilities, such as working memory, evolve and influence children's overall development. Studies indicate that children with stronger working memory tend to excel in reading comprehension, math, and problem-solving compared to peers with less efficient memory skills. Low working memory is also...
01:14Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Exploration...
01:14Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
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Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
01:31What is a Sensory System?
Sensory systems detect stimuli—such as light and sound waves—and transduce them into neural signals that can be interpreted by the nervous system. In addition to external stimuli detected by the senses, some sensory systems detect internal stimuli—such as the proprioceptors in muscles and tendons that send feedback about limb position.
01:21Association Areas of the Cortex
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