What is 'Zones of Regulation'?

Zones of Regulation is an approach designed to help individuals recognise their feelings and use strategies to regulate them. This approach is comprised of lessons and activities used to gain skills in the area of self-regulation and emotional control for children from as young as 4 years old up to adulthood.

Why are we using the Zones of Regulation?

Through using the Zones of Regulation, we are hoping for children to:

• develop the ability to identify a range of emotions and understand how the emotions make their body feel.
• develop insights on triggers and circumstances that influence their feelings and emotions.
• learn how their feelings and emotions affect their behaviour.
• learn to self-regulate.

How does this work?

Children are taught that emotions can be grouped into 4 simple colour categories:

They learn that we all experience feelings in each of the zones and that is ok. When in our classroom we need to try and remain in the green zone as this will help us to learn.

Once children are familiar with the concept of the zones, they are then taught to recognise how they personally feel when in each zone. This then leads to children identifying the strategies that work best to help them to move to the green zone. This may be different for each child.

What can you do at home?

At home you may want to start to use the language of the zones when talking about feelings and emotions.

Ask your child how they would feel in each zone?

Help them understand how their body might feel when in each zone.

Develop some strategies for them to use to help them get back to green zone.

Model using the zones when expressing your own emotions and feelings.

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.