The Zones of Regulation Curriculum is geared toward helping students gain skills in consciously regulating their actions to support increased control and problem-solving abilities.
The curriculum uses a systematic, cognitive behavioural approach to teach self-regulation. It helps to teach mindful behaviour by categorising all the different ways we feel into four concrete coloured zones:
Red Zone
Extreme heightened states of alertness and intense emotions
Yellow Zone
A heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions
Green Zone
A calm state of alertness
Blue Zone
A low state of alertness
This framework can be used with individuals and in school environments. It aims to teach students to become more aware of their independence in controlling emotions and impulses, managing sensory needs and improving conflict problem solving. The framework aims to address and explore underlying deficits in emotional and sensory regulation, executive functioning and social cognition in order to support students in independent self-regulation.
The curriculum enables individuals to learn and explore strategies and tools to move from one zone to the other as well as the exploration of calming strategies, cognitive strategies, and sensory strategies. This enables the individual to have a toolbox of different strategies to utilise as they move between the zones. The curriculum is taught over 18 lessons and is designed to be taught by anyone who works with individuals with self-regulation challenges.
For further information on this interesting topic, see www.zonesofregulation.com