Zones of Regulations

This year our focus for SWPBS will include introducing the Zones of Regulation to the school.

“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.” 

(THE ZONES OF REGULATION: A SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING PATHWAY TO REGULATION - Welcome).

Each coloured zone represents a range of emotions that we all experience. 

It is important to understand that feeling these emotions is ok, but we have to think about our behaviour and reactions and how it impacts ourselves and others around us. Ideally we would like to remain in the Green Zone, with brief visits to the other zones (we all need some excitement in life!)

In the coming weeks teachers will introduce the Zones to the students with a daily ‘check-in’ system. Our hope is to build a common language throughout the school and assist our students with their emotional regulation. It would be great to see parents jump onto the Zones website (link above) and have a look so that you can also understand and even use the language of the Zones.  

Keep a look out for future articles that will provide strategies to get back into the green zone!