02/12/2026
“Just because someone is not speaking or minimally speaking, doesn’t mean they are not sharing information about their inner experience.” – Caroline Gaddy, Autistic SLP
Interoception is the sense that tells us how we know what we are feeling in our bodies. For our non-speaking clients, supporting interoceptive awareness is deeply important for building self-awareness, self-advocacy, connection, safety, communication, and well-being. And the good news is, being able to speak isn’t a prerequisite for participating in interoceptive learning.
In this training, occupational therapist Kelly Mahler Kelly Mahler and Autistic speech language pathologist Caroline Gaddy Vibrant Minds SLP teach us exactly how we can learn about the interoceptive experiences of our non-speaking clients. Their practical and thoughtful approach centers curiosity, validation, humility, care, and repair.
Kelly and Caroline share concrete strategies, activities, scripts, and processes we can put into place in our sessions to support interoceptive awareness for our non-speaking clients. They show us goals that reflect the needs and well-being of our clients. They demonstrate how to set up systems that help us learn about a child’s pain or anything else that isn’t feeling good to them, even when they aren’t totally sure what they are feeling. They give us scripts we can use to show curiosity about a child’s experiences, and show us how to move away from inadvertently harmful practices into supportive practices that truly help our non-speaking clients feel seen, heard, and cared for.
This course is one of eight in our on-demand summit. And if you sign up before 2/13 at noon ET you can watch it for FREE. learnplaythrive.com/free
