The Zones of Regulation

Product Information

Begin by helping children recognise and identify their current emotional state. Encourage them to describe how they feel using the corresponding zone colour. For example, "I'm feeling really excited right now, so I'm in the Yellow Zone." All of the Zones are experienced naturally, and the framework focuses on teaching individuals how to recognise and manage their Zones based on their goals and task demands. These different levels of regulation help a child recognize, categorize, and communicate their feelings or emotions based on a specific knowledge of how one’s body and mind respond to situations. This is self awareness and self regulation in action!

Emotional regulation can look like a bad decision based on inner thoughts, or being in a grumpy mood and as a result being mean to a friend. Emotional regulation has to do with inner decisions related to emotions and moods. Knowing that those tasks needed to be done and making the decision to do them rather than giving into impulses is a form of self-regulation.

Identify your own feelings using Zones language in front of your child (e.g.: I’m frustrated. I think I am in the Yellow Zone.”) Identifying coping strategies that work for each individual can make all the difference in having a set of “go to” regulation strategies when the need presents itself. Anyone willing to support people in nurturing their regulation skills can teach The Zones of Regulation curriculum. These may include but are not limited to, class teachers, caregivers, social workers, behaviourists, counsellors, psychologists, special or/ and regular education teachers, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists.

Know your child’s sensory threshold. We all process sensory information differently and it impacts our reactivity to situations. The zone of the regulation framework is created to help develop learners toward more independent regulation while also respecting and honouring each individual. Social Thinking® Methodology concepts are integrated all through the curriculum to help learners become skilful problem solvers and build awareness of others’ intense emotions, feelings and thoughts and to identify the social context of an event, both these factors help individuals in regulating themself from time to time. The skill of regulation refers to the ability to manage one's emotional and sensory needs to meet the demands of the environment and achieve more positive social interactions. In the zones of regulation, students learn to identify their feelings and levels of alertness, use strategies and tools to regulate their responses, and problem-solve positive solutions. 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. 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.The self-regulation program teachers children and their parents or teachers how to recognize the relationship between emotions, feelings, and their internal “state of being” with the behaviors and actions that we see. Self-regulation can go by many names such as ‘self-control’, ‘impulse management’ and ‘self-management’. Self-regulation is best described as the best state of alertness for a situation. For example, when your child takes part in a sports game, they would need to have a higher state of alertness than when, for example, they were working in a library. The Zones of Regulation is a systematic framework designed to help individuals, especially children, understand and manage their emotions, sensory needs, and self-regulation skills. Created by Leah Kuypers, this framework categorises emotions and states of alertness into four colour-coded zones, each representing a different level of emotional intensity and self-regulation. As a teacher aide, you're a role model for the students. Demonstrate self-regulation techniques when faced with challenging situations. Narrate your own emotional experiences and how you manage them using the Zones.

During a zones of regulation intervention, the individual will work with the HSR professional to identify triggers or times of overwhelming emotions. The individual will then be taught about the four zones of regulation which is a visual system they can use to recognise their emotional state. The individual will work closely with the HSR Psychology specialist in practising how to stay in a certain zone and how to move between zones. The child or young person will usually be taught effective strategies to use when emotions become overwhelming so that they can move to a more appropriate zone. The child or young person will be encouraged to practice the zones of regulation strategies between each session and reflect on the effectiveness during sessions. What happens after a zones of regulation intervention? Now that you know some zones of regulation activities, you can use them in the classroom or learning environment. Whether that be in the traditional school setting, in homeschooling, or in remote learning settings, the a regulation curriculum or practical self regulation strategies are effective to foster learning. There are so many options for zones of regulation activities for kids. What would you add to this list?According to Leah Kuypers (The creator of the zones of regulation), every individual comes across trying circumstances that test their limits on various occasions. If individuals can identify when they are becoming less regulated, they can do something about it. Hence, the ultimate objective of the zones of regulation is to enable people to manage their feelings and mental health and get themselves to a healthy place. The Zones of Regulation® is a self-regulation program created by occupational therapist, Leah Kuypers, who founded the framework program in 2011.