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The Zones of Regulation, Inc.

A simple approach to understanding, communicating, and regulating our feelings.

Feelings come in different intensities and are unique within our brains and bodies. To make them easier to understand, The Zones of Regulation organizes feelings, states of alertness, and energy levels into four colored Zones – Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red. This simple, common language and visual structure helps make the complex skill of regulation more concrete for learners.

HundrED 2025
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED Global Collection 2025

Web presence

2010

Established

500K

Children

19

Countries
Target group
Students basic
Updated
April 2024
At The Zones of Regulation, we seek to empower learners of all ages and the leaders who support them to understand the full range of their feelings, as well as explore tools and strategies to support their wellbeing. We believe that inclusive, engaging, and accessible instruction in tandem with a strong climate can increase positive mental health and well-being for all.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Too often students’ challenges in regulation skills impact their academic and social participation and their sense of well-being. Learners of all ages can benefit from learning regulation competencies aligned to their developmental continuum and be given opportunities to practice these skills in a safe and supportive environment. Our approach addresses regulation in a systematic and pragmatic way.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Our curriculum and trainings provide a simple, common language and visual system to understand and teach regulation. The Digital Curriculum contains a comprehensive developmental sequence of lessons and is designed for flexible use with learners of various ages and settings including schools, clinics and at home. Our trainings provide foundational program knowledge, as well as hands-on tools and strategies to teach The Zones of Regulation with fidelity.
The Zones can be used across tiered supports and services within schools, and increasingly is implemented as a schoolwide or districtwide curriculum. Essential elements include:
-All learners being taught lessons from The Zones of Regulation curriculum
-Common Zones visuals used throughout the school campus
-Common Zones language used by all staff in all settings
-Regular opportunities for learners and staff to check in with their Zones
-Easy access to regulation tools for both learners and staff

How has it been spreading?

The Zones curriculum was first developed as a graduate school capstone and went on to be published in 2011 by Think Social Publishing, Inc., selling over 375,000 copies worldwide. In 2024, we released The Zones of Regulation (R) Digital Curriculum, which represents the evolution and next phase of the framework.

While we have marketing resources in place and active social media channels, the growth is largely the result of recommendations among existing users to their colleagues. Our new digital edition was sparked by feedback that overwhelmingly recommended we develop a more convenient way to teach and implement the curriculum. We embarked on an ambitious strategy to create a digital version of a fully reimagined and updated edition that expands upon the original 2011 print book.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Our website, www.zonesofregulation.com , contains information about the framework and how to teach our curriculum. In particular, the 'Curriculum' and 'Training' pages provide detailed descriptions about our resources and methodology. Our site also contains numerous free resources, lists of research studies, and first-hand accounts from individuals using our model.

Impact & scalability

HundrED Academy Reviews

I personally have used this innovation at my school and it helped me understand my emotions visually as a young child who didn't have the emotional regulation of an adult. The curriculum makes it simpler for students to process their feelings fully.

The scalability of The Zones of Regulation is high. Its flexible, digital curriculum adapts well to various educational settings, from schools to clinics. The universal design and common language make it easily implementable across different groups

- Academy member
Academy review results
Impact
Scalability
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Read more about our selection process

Implementation steps

Step 1: Get familiar with and obtain access to The Zones of Regulation Digital Curriculum.
Our Zones Digital Curriculum includes expanded and evolved lessons from the original edition, reimagined and updated to make it easier to teach and more engaging to learn.
The curriculum consists of Interactive Presentations with videos and animations, a step-by-step teaching Guide with description of lessons to be taught over multiple sessions, a library of visuals, and differentiated activities. All content has been recently updated to reflect a decade of innovation and research.
Step 2: Participate in one of our Zones of Regulation Trainings.
Sign up for a live, virtual training to learn foundational program knowledge, as well as hands-on tools and strategies to teach The Zones of Regulation curriculum with fidelity. We offer half day (3 hour) and full day (7 hour) options with opportunities to rewatch a recording of the session for 30 days or to view if a scheduled session is not offered during a convenient time.
Step 3: Develop a plan and explore our additional related resources.
Champion The Zones of Regulation at your school by gathering a team of educators to collaborate on a school-wide plan to support its use. There is not one way to roll out The Zones as a school-wide SEL curriculum. We also understand that every school site is unique; therefore implementation will look different depending on your students, staff and resources. We have tools, rubrics and data collection materials to adapt and use for an effective implementation.

Spread of the innovation

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