Social Emotional Learning

WHAT ARE THE ZONES?

The Zones of Regulation is the original framework and curriculum (Kuypers, 2011) that develops awareness of feelings, energy and alertness levels while exploring a variety of tools and strategies for regulation, prosocial skills, self-care, and overall wellness.  This curriculum provides us an easy way to think and talk about how we feel on the inside and sort these  feelings into four colored Zones, all of which are expected in life.  Once we understand our feelings and zones, we can learn to use tools/strategies to manage our different Zones in order to meet goals like doing schoolwork or other tasks, managing big feelings, and healthy relationships with others. The simple, common language and visual structure of The Zones of Regulation helps make the complex skill of regulation more concrete for learners and those who support them.

Talk through the zones with your child.

• Discuss what emotion they feel in whichever zone they choose; for example, in the yellow zone they may select worried.

• Discuss what worried  looks like, sounds like, and physically feels like in their body; for example in the yellow zone they may be fidgeting, speaking in a loud voice, have butterflies in their stomach or have sweaty palms.

• Then discuss what they might need; for example if they are feeling worried they might choose to do belly breaths and want to talk to someone they trust.

Remind them everyone experiences all zones and there are no good or bad zones. Our success in regulating our emotions depends on us recognizing our emotions and putting a support strategy in place.