Social & Emotional Programs

The Goals of Zones

• To teach the students:
  • To identify their feelings and levels of alertness
  • How to develop effective regulation tools
  • When and how to use the tools
  • Problem Solve positive solutions to problems
  • To understand how their behaviors influence others’ thoughts and feelings
  • Social-Emotional Awareness
• And ultimately move towards:
  • Independent Regulation!

Regulation Versus Dysregulation

Regulation is the ability to adjust level of alertness and direct how emotions are revealed behaviorally in socially adapted ways in order to achieve goals. Dysregulation is the lack of regulation

What Impacts Regulation?

• Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs, ACEs-Wisconsin)
• Emotional regulation
• Executive functioning
• Sensory processing and modulation
• Social cognition

Co-Regulation

Regulation that occurs in the context of Social Interaction, such as:

• Student seeks assistance from teacher/caregiver
• An Individual responds to another in attempt to support him or her when facing a stressor

How to support an individual through co-regulation using the Zones language:
I see that you are having a tough time keeping your body calm, you are moving all over and cannot sit still. This shows me that you are maybe feeling wiggly and in the yellow zone. What do you think you can do to help calm your body?