Self-Regulation: The Challenges of the Zones of Regulation
TL;DR:
- Several things can get confusing and get in the way of using Zones to their fullest.
- Learn from my failure.
There is a lot to love about the Zones of Regulation. Here are my favorite things. But, just like the rest of life, not everything is unicorns and rainbows. Here are the places I noticed common misunderstandings and how I address them.
- Green means good and red means bad.
The Challenge:
The Zones of Regulation uses stoplight colors to help kids understand where they are on the regulation scale. (Check out this post if you would like an explanation of regulation.) Calm and ready-to-learn feelings are in the green zone because green means go. The yellow zone means caution, and just like a stoplight, red means a full stop. The low energy feelings are blue, like freezing on a thermometer. This means that most of the things grown-ups want from kids fall in the green zone. Things like being happy, calm, and ready to learn. It is easy to think of green as good.
Because red means flipped lid, most emotions associated with being in trouble fall into the red zone. When I am in the red zone, I am out of control. It represents emotions like anger and panic, and that is when I am most likely to do hurtful or unsafe things. That is why it is easy to think of red as bad.
Here is how I solved that problem:
After introducing The Zones of Regulation, I do two things:
- I take time diving into each zone. This allows me to spend time talking about the job of each zone, and we have some great conversations about why each zone is important.
- I also teach The Brain In The Palm of Your Hand by Dr. Dan Siegel (also not a paid endorsement; I am just a huge fan). The Brain In The Palm of Your Hand is a metaphor that explains what happens in our brains as we move from calm to out-of-control. Putting these two pieces together has really helped kids understand that it is all just part of being human.
- What are body signals?
The Challenge:
I found that kids developed a strong understanding of the Zones and how to use them. They were great at helping each other. They struggled to identify the zones in themselves, which is not helpful for self-regulation. It was still a valuable tool, giving kids a way to understand their peers and develop empathy, but its impact was not all it could be.
Here is how I solved that problem:
Enter…interoception. That was a new word for me, too. I will tell you, it sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole. But that is for another day. Interoception is simply the fancy way of saying body sensations or signals.
Body signals are how your body lets you know you are feeling a particular emotion or are in a specific zone. It is an essential and foundational skill for self-regulation. You can’t use a strategy to calm yourself if you don’t notice your body asking for help. I have found that using the term “body signals” makes the most sense for kids. Sensation is not a word many kids are familiar with or use regularly. That means you will end up spending your time teaching and reteaching vocabulary. Important, yes. A self-regulation skill, no. I have also found that when I use the term body signals, I can use sentences like, “My body is giving me the signal that…” It makes a lot more sense to kids than, “My body sensations are telling me…”
If you want to go down this rabbit hole, I recommend starting by looking for Kelly Mahler.
- What is the difference between the yellow and red zones?
The Challenge:
There is such a fine line between losing it and a fully flipped lid, especially if you are still learning what the different states feel like in your body. There is a lot of nuance in a lot of the words we use for emotions. Feeling frustrated is an excellent example. Frustration has a large range of intensity. My frustration might be low and close to the green zone. In that situation, I need to take a stretch break. If my frustration is high and close to the red zone, I will need to use a different strategy to regulate.
How I solved that problem:
Games! All the games in all the ways. Sometimes, we play games I made to help them compare the two zones. Other times, we play games together and talk about the different zones as we experience them. (This is also a great way to reinforce a lesson on mirror neurons.)
- You can’t use one coping strategy for every zone-unless it is exercise.
The Challenge:
I like to start our conversations about coping strategies by brainstorming all the different coping strategies the kids use. It is usually a short list. Over the years, I have learned that most kids rely heavily on 1-3 strategies. In practice, this means they end up using the same strategy in every zone, which isn’t very effective for the situation or what their body needs.
My solution:
- One way I address this is by organizing the zones in a vertical line, like a thermometer, rather than in a four-quadrant square. When I explain to the kids that Zones is like a thermometer, I tell them it measures our energy and self-control. (Thanks again for that idea, Leah Cuypers.) Usually, it only takes a couple of exposures to sink in. (Hooray for fewer reps, am I right?) Once they understand the zones as a thermometer, we can better match the coping strategy to the zone. We talk about different coping strategies, such as energy-up strategies and energy-down strategies.
- We don’t leave out the green zone! Coping strategies for the green zone are actually self-care. They are the things that make us feel more resilient and less empty.
The only strategy that meets the criteria for all zones is exercise. Exercise decreases depression and anxiety, increases well-being and the window of tolerance, and is one way to close the stress cycle. (Among many, many more.)
If you want to go down this rabbit hole, just google it. There is a ton of information out there. I like this article published by the NIH for a summary.
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