Zones of Regulation
The ZONES of Regulation® is a social, emotional and sensory regulation curriculum for all.
At Kilmorie Primary School, we recognise the importance of promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to our students and their families. We aim to create an open culture around the discussion of mental health and wellbeing and to empower our children be able to regulate their emotions. By implementing the Zones of Regulation we aim to teach our pupils to identify emotions in themselves and others and provide them with bank of strategies to help regulate their emotions and improve their wellbeing.
The Zones of Regulation is a range of activities to help your child develop skills in the area of self-regulation. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation. For example, when your child plays in a basketball game, it is beneficial to have a higher state of alertness. However, that same state would not be appropriate in the library.
The Zones of Regulation is based around the use of four colours to help children self-identify how they’re feeling and categorise it based on colour. It also helps children better understand their emotions, sensory needs and thinking patterns. The children learn different strategies to cope and manage their emotions based on which colour zone they’re in.
The ZONES help us understand how we are feeling. It helps us be able to:
- identify our own feelings
- read other people’s body language
- to think about how they are feeling, and relate to others.
It is a holistic approach; however, it can be particularly useful for young people with ADHD, ASD, Anxiety and childhood trauma.
- Zones are a visual scaffold/curriculum to help you think, monitor and regulate your emotional responses.
- They provide calming, cognitive and sensory supports.
- Develop problem solving skills through supporting executive functioning and cognitive control (CBT)
- Offer perspectives on others thoughts and feelings
- Enhance self-awareness of personal triggers
- Develop a shared language around social & emotional thinking
Why is a whole school / whole class approach to the ZONES useful?
Useful links: