What is “Zones of Regulation”?
Zones of Regulation is a complete social – emotional learning curriculum created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control. Leah Kypers created Zones of Regulation in 2011. An official video has been made by the Zones of Regulation team giving you an oversite of the 4 different zone colours.
What are the four zones?
There are four zones to describe how your brain and body feel.
BLUE Zone – Your body is running slow, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored.
GREEN Zone – Like a green light, you are “good to go,” ready to learn. Your body may feel happy, calm and focused.
YELLOW Zone – This zone describes when you start to become overwhelmed, such as when you are frustrated, anxious, worried, silly or surprised. Use caution when you are in this zone.
RED Zone – This zone is when you are overwhelmed by emotion such as anger, terror and aggression. When you are in this zone, you are out of control, have trouble making good decisions and must STOP! Children often need help to regulate.
Why should you use zones at home?
Using The Zones of Regulation language and strategies at home can help families to support each other, expand discussions and build upon regulation skills taught during the school year. There are lots of different ways that you can make a zones check-in at home using images, photos, cartoon characters such as Inside Out, and Winnie the Pooh or Lego. The Zones website offers a video description of how Leah Kypers uses zones with her family.
Make a family tool kit
- First pick your images.
- Second discuss your vocabulary.
- Record some tools that work for you.
- Check-in.
