The Zones of Regulation

My second item of interest is a book called The Zones of Regulation which is a curriculum designed to foster self-regulation and emotional control. The curriculum's learning activities are presented in 18 lessons. The Zones of Regulation is a conceptual framework is designed to be taught by anyone who works with students who struggle with self-regulation. This curriculum is used to teach students: how to identify their feelings and levels of alertness, effective regulation tools, when and how to use the tools, problem solve positive solutions, understand how their behaviors influence others' thoughts and feelings. This can include, but not limited to special education and regular education teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and parents.

I decided to share this curriculum because it can help us as social workers teach clients how to learn to express what they are feeling and explore their reactions and behavior. For instance, social workers can use this as a check-in. It is suggested to use and introduce the concept of the zones with the wall posters for a visual. A social worker can share the four zones and describe how it would be used during their session and have the client express how their brain and body feels before and after the session.

When a person is in a blue zone, their body is running slow, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored. The green zone is described to be as a green street light, meaning "good to go". If a person is in the green zone a person might feel happy, calm and focused. The yellow zone is compared to a caution sign meaning to slow down. A person in this zone may feel frustrated, overwhelmed, silly, excited, anxious or surprised. When someone is in the red zone, they might be out of control meaning; feeling extreme emotions such as terror, uncontrolled anger, and aggression. In this zone, you have trouble making smart choices and must stop and take a breather. This curriculum also promotes learning sensory and perspective-taking strategies to encourage self-regulation in a variety of scenarios.

In the context of my internship at District 104, my supervisor and I plan to use this curriculum material when working with students.  This serves as a great tool because we can share with teachers and parents to help students identify what they are feeling and learn how to self-regulate. This curriculum is appropriate for all ages and can be tailored for students and groups if necessary.

 I hope this is helpful to you and your practice! Below is an image of the book! I highly recommend.

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Social Thinking: Chicago Metro Conference

Social Thinking Conference 

April 24-26

Social Thinking presents: Chicago Metro Area Conference

April 25-27, 8:30-3:45 PM

Conference led by a speech language pathologist, Michelle Garcia Winner, will also include other presenters. Organization that helps people develop their social competencies to better connect with others. They teach different skills and strategies that can be used in the classroom, home or community centers to help students with organizational skills and social emotional learning.

What is social thinking? Social thinking is the process by which we interpret the thoughts, beliefs, intentions, emotions, knowledge and actions of another person along

with the context of the situation to understand that person’s experience.

Topics Conference will cover:

Executive functioning: Tackle Homework and classwork with these helpful strategies!

(5^th graders – young adult)

Learn organizational skills, strategies to find motivation to tackle tasks, and strategies to complete homework.

Zones of regulation: A framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control (K-Young adult)

Learn the frameworks for self-regulation and emotional control, and executive functioning. It is a cognitive behavior approach that uses four zones (colors) to help students visually and verbally self-identify how they are functioning in the moment given their emotions and state of alertness.

Helping teens prepare for the real adult world (upper elementary – young adult).

This conference focuses on helping parents and educators prepare for and learn how to respond to the transition to independence. Discuss strategies that will help individuals develop a more mature social mindset.

The frameworks and strategies taught in these courses are developed from

Using peer-reviewed research and client family values. Also, it connects to research in fields that study how individuals have evolved and developed in order to function in society like: anthropology, cultural linguistics, social psychology, child development etc. 

This conference fits in the Promote a school climate and culture conducive to student learning and teaching excellence section of the School social work model. It is allowing the enhancement of professional capacity of school personnel by providing them with an opportunity to further their knowledge on social emotional and executive functioning skills that could be applied within special education classrooms.  

Link to Brochure: Brochure