Mariella the Ladybug Looks for a Home: A proprioceptive tale for “inhabiting” the body in early childhood.

The pedagogy of the body today assigns a central role to the embodied dimension, which supports cogni - tive, emotional, and relational development in childho - od. The present study aimed to test a storytelling-based intervention to help children “inhabit their bodies,” drawing on the Sincrony methodology, which emphasi - zes body awareness as a pathway to consciousness and learning. The tale, titled “Mariella the Ladybug Looks for a Home”, was designed to guide children in body exploration through the interoceptive channel, faci - litated by the mediated voice of an adult. The sample consisted of nine mothers and their children aged 3–5 years, who engaged in daily listening to the tale over a three-week period. Data collection (189 diaries and semi-structured interviews) allowed monitoring of four indicators: relaxation, well-being, affectivity, and bodyrelated verbalizations. The analysis revealed that enjoyment was the most frequent indicator, consistently 86 87 RELAdEI 15 • issn 2255-0666 RELAdEI 15 • issn 2255-0666 present across observations, and that relaxation increased over time (p < .05 between the first and third week). Affective expressions remained stable (about 60% of entries), while body-related verbalizations showed greater intra-subject variability (CV% ≈ 42). An unexpected yet recurring result was the transformation of the tale into a tactile experience, spontaneously requested by the children, highlighting the body's role as a co-author of the narrative.