Zones of Regulation
At Knightwood Primary School, we recognise the importance of promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to our children 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. We use the Zones of Regulation to help us talk about how we are feeling. Teaching the zones gives children a shared language to talk about their emotions by associating them with highly visual coloured zones.
The Zones of Regulation has been created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control. 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 BLUE ZONE describes low states of alertness and down feelings, such as when a person feels sad, tired, sick, hurt, lonely or bored. Our energy is low and our body is moving slowly when we are in the Blue Zone.
The GREEN ZONE describes a calm, alert state. We may be feeling happy, focused, content, peaceful, or calm in the Green Zone. The nervous system feels safe, organised and connected in the Green Zone, helping us be primed to learn. However, we can learn in other Zones too.
The YELLOW ZONE describes when our energy is higher and our internal state starts to elevate. Our emotions get a little stronger. We may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, confusion, nervousness, be overwhelmed or have the wiggles when in the Yellow Zone.
The RED ZONE describes a state of extremely high energy and intense, very overwhelming feelings. We may be in an extremely heightened state of alertness, potentially triggering our fight, flight, freeze or flee protective response. We may feel elated, euphoric, anger, rage, devastated, out of control, panicked or terrified when in the Red Zone.
A core belief of The Zones of Regulation is that all the Zones are okay. We routinely experience several of the Zones across a day. Acknowledging which zone we are in, is the first step to self-regulation and being able to make choices about how we respond.
Talk through the zones with your child. Ask them how they would feel in each zone?
- Discuss what emotion they feel in each zone e.g. in the yellow zone I may feel worried
- How they physically feel e.g. in yellow zone I may have butterflies in my stomach or have sweaty palms (if feeling anxious).
- Then discuss what might they be doing- what be their actions e.g. in yellow zone would they be pacing around, snapping at others, fidgeting?
- Then discuss how to help them move into the Green zone e.g. if I was in the Yellow zone and feeling anxious I might find competing some yoga stretches/ breathing techniques helps me get back into the green zone.
- Create a list of strategies that work for the child- Remind the child that we are all unique and the strategies that work for one person might not help them so they need to think about what would help them.
Remind them that we will experience all zones and there are no good or bad zones- however our success in regulating our emotions depends on us recognising our emotion, understanding it and putting a support strategy in place.
