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Zones of Regulation is a set of resources to help teach emotional regulation based around a system of categorising emotions into groups and then providing regulation tools for each group. Provides training for how to teach the curriculum it provides. Also contains free printable worksheets.
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Who is this resource designed for?

This resource is suitable for children with: ASC, ADHD, Intellectual disability

Age Group: 4 - 18

Intended outcome(s): Teach emotional regulation skills by categorising emotions into groups and then providing tools for regulation for each group

Does this resource also support student health/wellbeing? Yes

Developed by: Zones of Regulation

This resource is: PAID FOR

Resource Delivery

Resource type: Multi-session curriculum, Practical training for staff, Worksheets/printables

Resource delivered by: Teacher/Teaching Assisstant

Training required: Course

Notes on training:

Evaluations

Has this resource been co-developed with the community? No

Educator
score

5.7

Evidence
rating

5.7

Educator Appraisal

So zones of regulation provides a structured framework for children to identify and name their emotions. So this helps children understand and talk about how they feel, which is a crucial skill for personal and social development. I like that it teaches children self regulation strategies by introducing calming, alerting and focusing strategies. So it helps children respond to emotions in a healthy and constructive way. It provides common language for emotional states. So it's like colour coded so through blue, yellow, green and red. So it's makes it easy for teachers and students and even parents to communicate emotions effectively. I didn't like that it's a risk of oversimplifying emotions. So there's 4 zones which are the colours which may oversimplify the complexity of like human emotions. So students might feel restricted by categories and struggle to express their feelings if they don't fit neatly into the zones. And then it also requires consistent reinforcement. So to be effective it needs to be reinforced regularly. So because it can't might be quite easy to get the zones and strategies which reduces the long term benefits of the resource. And then it's also there's a potential to label emotions as good or bad. So some children might interpret certain zones such as like red zone for anger, which could be bad, which can discourage healthy expression of all emotions.

Evidence Rating

Zones of regulation was developed by Leah Kuypers as a way of addressing emotional regulation issues in neurodivergent children. There are multiple studies which support its effectiveness, however we could find none which were fully controlled.