Zones of Regulation
What is the Zones of Regulation programme?
The Zones of Regulation is a programme created by an occupational therapist used to help children and young people regulate their emotions and needs. Using the zones of regulation helps children to identify emotions, what they look like, and then use tools to help manage situations. There are four different zones Blue, Green, Yellow and Red. One of the great benefits of the zones of regulation is that it gives children a way of talking about their emotions - something as adults we know can be hard!
The BLUE zone
The blue zone is used to describe when a child is feeling sad, tired, bored or maybe sick, it is linked with the body feeling slow and less likely to engage.
The GREEN zone
The green zone is the ideal state to learn in and is used to describe a happy, calm and focused child. It is the ‘ready to go’ zone.
The YELLOW zone
The yellow zone is used to describe a child who is over excited, frustrated, worried, wiggly and anxious. The yellow zone is sometimes called the ‘trigger zone’ (please read on for more about triggers).
The RED zone
The red zone is used to describe when a child feels angry, terrified and out of control, their behaviour may look like screaming, yelling or hitting. Often others describe the behaviour seen in the red zone as a ‘meltdown’