The Impulse Control Journal takes self-reflection a step further by working on the impulses that impact behavioral regulation or emotional regulation and the actions that we see. This tool is effective in helping kids and teens to identify emotions, reactions, responses, and learning strategies to change their regulation through self-awareness. 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.”) There are many different programs that offer self-regulation curriculum. These are regulation programs and interventions that can assist a child (and adult) to learn the skills necessary to achieve emotional regulation fit for every situation, circumstance, and environment. One of the most popular systems taking place in classrooms right now is Zones of Regulation. It sounds great – but do you know what it is? And, if you’re a teacher, are you implementing it correctly? Read on to find out more about Zones of Regulation and the benefits of using it. What is ‘Zones of Regulation’? The red zone is for the most alert and intense feelings. This is to describe feeling angry, out of control, mean etc.

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. 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. Now, the teacher who referred to it as a behaviour management tool – although wrong, she is partly right. The curriculum uses a cognitive behaviour approach. The activities help individuals to learn about each of the four zones, and to recognise when they are in one of those zones. What are ‘Zones’? Try a variety of sensory foods and ask the child to identify how their mouth feels with each food. Does the food taste salty, sweet, chewy, crunchy, or sour? How does their mouth feel after trying each food? Awake, sleepy, happy, calm, alert? Ask the child to put a name to each food. Mark these down on a chart and use this as a regulation tool.The curriculum is designed to be taught by anyone who works with students who struggle with self-regulation. This can include, but is not limited to, special education and regular education teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychologists, counsellors, behaviourists, social workers, and parents. Throughout the text, the user is referred to as “teacher”; however, this does not mean you need to be a classroom teacher to teach the lessons. 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. Anyone from the age of 4 upto 25, depending on cognitive abilities, may be suitable for a zones of regulation intervention at HSR Psychology. One of the key pieces to the a self regulation tool is the point that there is no one “right” level to be in. It’s OK to have emotions of all levels and behaviors that match…to a point (getting so angry that one breaks things or is destructive to property is not ok. Being so upset and frustrated that one is mean and hurtful to a friend is not ok). A self-regulation program like the ones listed above are a helpful strategy for supporting self-control skills and self-regulation that impact behavioral responses. These strategies can be helpful for our children (and us adults!) to use during everyday tasks in our daily lives, whether that be schools, work, community, and homes.

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! We will be introducing the Zones through discrete teaching lessons and through our PSHE curriculum. We will also be using the Zones language as part of daily school life so all staff will be referring to them, not just their class teacher. The Zones of Regulation® is a self-regulation program created by occupational therapist, Leah Kuypers, who founded the framework program in 2011. Having a quiet, calm down space for the child to retreat to. You can have heavy items or fidget toys in this space to support a calming feeling We also like to include some extra bits that we know they like. Many of our students respond really well to social stories or picture books about different emotions. These are all great ways to let students know that it’s ok how they are feeling and how to work through it. BenefitsRed Zone: heightened state of alertness and intense emotions; not an optimal level for learning; out of control; feels mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting, elated, out of control. 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.

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. All of us can use what we learn from the self regulation activities found in the innovative program to monitor, maintain, and change our level of regulation. These Zones visuals feature characters from The Zones of Regulation Storybook Set. They can be used when teaching Lesson 1 in The Zones of Regulation curriculum to supplement Reproducible C: Zones Emotions and Reproducible E: The Zones of Regulation Visual and at any point in the learning process.

The Zones of Regulation is a popular framework and self-regulation curriculum to teach regulation strategies for managing sensory needs and emotions to students, children, and other individuals aged 4+. The Zones lessons are designed to be used with students as young as preschool age (around four years old) if cognitively they are at or above average intellect, primary students, secondary students, and adults. Where relevant, the lessons suggest ways to do the activities with younger students (preschool to early primary years) and older students (upper primary or middle school through secondary school or adulthood). More mature secondary age students and adults may feel that some of the activities are too “childish” for them but can still benefit from the discussions laid out in the lessons. The depth of understanding will vary depending on the students’ age and grade level, cognition, and maturity, and teaching expectations need to be tailored for specific students and groups. For example, you would rarely set a goal for a preschool student to independently regulate by using a tool when facing a stressful situation. You will want to customize how concepts are presented depending on the age and grade level of the students; with younger students, you’ll need to simplify some of the discussions. 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. Sensory tools are resources that can help students manage their alertness levels and emotional responses. These might include physical items like stress balls or fidget toys, as well as strategies like deep breathing or movement breaks.