What are Zones of Regulation?

The Zones of Regulation is an internationally-renowned intervention which helps children to manage difficult emotions, known as ‘self-regulation’.

Self-regulation can go by many names such as ‘self-control’, ‘impulse management’ and ‘self-management’.  Self-regulation is best described as the best state of alertness for a situation.  For example, when your child takes part in a sports game, they would need to have a higher state of alertness than when, for example, they were working in a library.

From time to time, all of us (including adults) find it hard to manage strong feelings such as worry, anger, restlessness, fear or tiredness, and this stops us from getting on with our day effectively. Children who feel these emotions often find it hard to learn and concentrate in school.  The Zones of Regulation aims to teach children strategies to help them cope with these feelings so they can get back to feeling calm and ready to learn. These coping strategies are called ‘self-regulation’.

At Holy Family Catholic Primary School, we are launching the Zones of Regulation throughout the whole school.  We want to teach all of our children good coping and regulation strategies so they can help themselves when they experience anxiety and stress. In the classroom, sometimes children panic when faced with a tricky learning problem or challenge. By teaching them how to cope with these feelings, we might make them better at tackling learning challenges and build better resilience so they don’t give up so easily when faced with difficulty.

We want children at Holy Family to grow into successful teenagers after they have left us and then successful adults.  Teaching the children at a young age about managing their feelings will support them in later life so that they don’t turn to negative coping strategies which affect their mental and physical wellbeing.

What are the different Zones?

Blue Zone: low level of arousal; not ready to learn; feels sad, sick, tired, bored, moving slowly.

Green Zone: calm state of alertness; optimal level to learn; feels happy, calm, feeling okay, focused.

Yellow Zone: heightened state of alertness; elevated emotions; has some control; feels frustrated, worried, silly/wiggly, excited, loss of some control.

Red Zone: heightened state of alertness and intense emotions; not an optimal level for learning; out of control; feels mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting, elated, out of control.