The Zones of Regulation

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Leah Kuypers earned a BS in Occupational Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Graduate Certificate in Autism and a MA in Education from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She has practiced as an OT/autism specialist in school and clinical settings, specialising in self-regulation and social learning, and has worked with students of all ages and challenges, including anxiety, ADHD, and ASD. I think we can all say that one time or another we had something that we were expected to do but we really did NOT want to do. Visual aids such as posters, charts, and flashcards can help children better understand and remember the Zones of Regulation. These visual supports serve as a constant reminder of the framework and its associated strategies.

This Zones of Regulation visual, featuring our updated Zones logo design, is helpful for learners who have access to a broad emotional vocabulary.Kids can go through the various calming and alerting activities and use them to self-regulate. Make a Zones of Regulation Chart Using a printed journal like our Self-Reflection Journal or the Impulse Control Journal can help kids identify more about themselves, become more self-aware, while reflecting on their day and week. Create a safe and open space for children to express their feelings. Encourage them to talk about their emotions and experiences. Active listening and empathetic responses can go a long way in helping children regulate their emotions. The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum geared toward helping students gain skills in consciously regulating their actions, which in turn leads to increased control and problem solving abilities. Using a cognitive behaviour approach, the curriculum’s learning activities are designed to help students recognise when they are in different states called “zones,” with each of four zones represented by a different colour. In the activities, students also learn how to use strategies or tools to stay in a zone or move from one to another. Students explore calming techniques, cognitive strategies, and sensory supports so they will have a toolbox of methods to use to move between zones. To deepen students’ understanding of how to self-regulate, the lessons set out to teach students these skills: how to read others’ facial expressions and recognise a broader range of emotions, perspective about how others see and react to their behaviour, insight into events that trigger their less regulated states, and when and how to use tools and problem solving skills.

The red zone is for the most alert and intense feelings. This is to describe feeling angry, out of control, mean etc.The social thinking that is developed in collaborative activities such as interactive games at playtimes was removed from children's lives all over the world. This meant that some children didn't get the opportunity to develop the acceptable behaviours needed to function in school and achieve success in life. When children return to school some teachers reported children having difficulty with impulse control. Share how their behaviour is affecting your Zone. For example, if they are in the Green Zone, you could comment that their behaviour is also helping you feel happy / go into the Green Zone. Although the majority of the lessons are targeted toward students with average to above-average intelligence, some accommodations are provided to allow you to adapt activities for more cognitively involved students or those with less language. Students with lower cognition may not develop as deep an understanding of The Zones, but with consistent exposure, many are able to gain awareness of their zones and follow visual supports to guide them to activities that aid in self-regulation. You may need to further adapt the concepts presented when you teach students with cognitive impairments.

Remind them that we will experience all zones and there are no good or bad zones- however our success in regulating our emotions depends on us recognising our emotion, understanding it and putting a support strategy in place . Suggested Books Other emotional regulation therapy strategies can include using the traffic light emotional regulation concept where the red light, yellow light, and green light of a traffic light are considered for emotions and behavioral responses. The zones of regulation can be integrated into daily school life in various ways. Teachers can incorporate the zones into their classroom routines, use them to frame conversations about emotions and self-regulation, and embed them into academic lessons. The goal is to make the zones a part of the school environment, helping students to understand and manage their emotions throughout the day.It provides teaching staff the tools to know how the individual is feeling. If your student is in the red zone, whatever you teach them, they may not remember. There are 4 zones included in the Zones of Regulation and each zone has it’s own colour. It’s very important that these colours remain the same – no changing them for ‘prettier’ colours! Each of the zones is based on a feeling/emotion/behaviour. Then discuss what might they be doing- what be their actions e.g. in yellow zone would they be pacing around, snapping at others, fidgeting? Some children might prefer not to use the ‘Zones language’ but label the emotions directly – this is fine and encouraged!