The Zones of Regulation framework is a powerful tool designed to teach children how to understand and manage their emotions, behaviours, and sensory needs. Developed by Leah Kuypers, this approach categorises feelings and states of alertness into four colour-coded zones:
- Blue Zone: For low-energy states like sadness, tiredness, or boredom.
- Green Zone: For calm and focused feelings such as happiness and readiness to learn.
- Yellow Zone: For heightened emotions like frustration, anxiety, or excitement.
- Red Zone: For intense emotions like anger, fear, or elation that may require immediate regulation.
The Zones of Regulation helps children identify their current emotional state, understand what triggers these emotions, and develop coping strategies to move between zones as needed.
What’s Included in the Free Resources?
This comprehensive set of free materials supports emotional learning in a structured and interactive way:
- Emotion Pictures: Visuals showing facial expressions and emotions linked to each zone, helping kids label their feelings accurately.
- Zones Posters: Colourful posters with words, expressions, and actions associated with each zone to reinforce understanding.
- Zones Bingo: A fun game to match emotions and behaviours to the correct zones.
- Zones Scenarios: Prompts that let kids discuss situations and identify which zone they would be in during different experiences.
- Interactive Worksheets:
- Which Zone Should I Be In?: Helps kids reflect on appropriate emotional states for various situations.
- Understanding Different Perspectives: Develops empathy by exploring how others might feel in the same scenarios.
- Me in the Zones: Allows kids to map their personal feelings and behaviours for each zone.
- Triggers and Strategies Tools: Guides kids to recognise their emotional triggers and discover effective coping strategies.
- Social Behaviour Mapping: Connects behaviours to their impact on others and links actions to specific zones.
Why Use Zones of Regulation?
This framework is especially helpful for children with autism, ADHD, or sensory processing challenges, but it benefits all children by teaching emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and social problem-solving. By recognising their feelings and choosing strategies to manage them, kids build skills that promote better behaviour, improved focus, and healthier relationships.
Perfect for Various Settings
The Zones of Regulation materials are suitable for classrooms, therapy sessions, or at-home learning. Teachers can integrate the worksheets and posters into social-emotional learning lessons, while parents and therapists can use them to guide one-on-one discussions or group activities.
These free resources provide an engaging, easy-to-follow system for helping children navigate their emotions, develop self-awareness, and improve their overall wellbeing.
