This jives more with my intuition that a toddler is conscious, even if they aren't really aware of themselves as a perceiving entity (aside, I wonder if such self-awareness is even binary or more continuous). And given this framing, it's very reasonable to ask whether insects may be conscious.
As always the root of most disagreement is actually not disagreement about the issue itself but the terms we’re using to discuss it. I think we have a word for your definition and it’s awareness. Perception might also do. If we say consciousness is the same also, then we have a pileup of three words all for basically the same thing, and no word for the strong sense of self awareness and internal reflection I prefer.
I would be absolutely fine accepting your definition of consciousness, as long as we have a clear widely accepted unambiguous term specifically for awareness of your own mental state and thought processes. IMHO we need a term for that, and that’s actually the interesting subject.
I think toddlers are conscious in the strong sense I prefer, based on my discussions with my own children when they were toddlers, as I was interested in this question at the time.
This jives more with my intuition that a toddler is conscious, even if they aren't really aware of themselves as a perceiving entity (aside, I wonder if such self-awareness is even binary or more continuous). And given this framing, it's very reasonable to ask whether insects may be conscious.