Zones of Regulation
How many zones are there?
Four zones!
Blue, green, yellow and red
One way you can read someone's emotion
Facial expression
Body language
Tone of voice
What is flexible thinking?
Flexible thinking is a skill that lets you look at problems/situations in different ways and find solutions to new problems.
In other words, it’s being able to quickly switch gears and find new approaches to solve problems.
Adapting to change
Going with the flow
What is a social filter?
The way a person evaluates a social situation to know how to appropriately react or respond in the social situation
Our social filter helps us determine which of our words should stay inside our minds and which words are okay to speak
Our social filter helps us separate the good things to say out loud vs. things we wouldn’t say out loud
What are senses?
Senses are a way we get information about our surrounding environment
Humans have 5 different senses
Describe the green zone
The green Zone describes when you’re “just right” at a calm state of alertness.
Feeling calm, focused, happy, relaxed, or ready to learn
What is something you wouldn't do in front of someone who is showing a sad facial expression and closed off body language?
You wouldn’t:
Laugh and joke about them
Brag about yourself
Ask them a lot of questions that would irritate them
Bother them
What is inflexible thinking?
The opposite of Flexible Thinking
Making the size of your reaction LARGER than the size of the problem
Being stuck on a problem
Not adapting to a change in plans
Not finding solutions to a problem
What does it mean to "filter" what we say?
Just like how water gets filtered through a strainer, everyone needs to use a filter for their words when speaking to others
This helps to remove any unkind or mean words
Our social filter helps catch the unkind words and keeps them in our thought bubble so that only kind words come out of our speech bubble
What are the five senses?
1) Sight
2) Hearing
3) Taste
4) Smell
5) Touch
What do zones help you with?
They help you identify your emotions by categorizing feelings into four zones.
They help you with self-awareness of your emotions
They help you get back to a calm state
They give you coping strategies and ideas of how to get to the green zone
They help you identify triggers
What are contexual cues?
What’s going on in the environment. The background information. We can use this to see what is having an effect on a person's emotion
How can you practice Flexible Thinking?
Practice self-talk
Take a few deep breaths, state the problem, consider at least three solutions, and choose one
This help with decreasing frustration and helps to cope with unexpected change
Use visual reminders
This consists of having reminders to walk you through problem solving
Asking for help
You have the choice to ask teachers, adults or parents to help you problem solve or give you ideas/options to work through a problem
The difference between a speech bubble and a thought bubble
A speech bubble contains words that are spoken out loud...People can hear them
A thought bubble contains words, ideas, or pictures that are in someone's brain...No one else can see or hear them
Why are our senses important?
We use them constantly to understand our environment
We need them to live a fulfilling life
We need them to aid our survival
We use our senses to learn about our world
Are essential for our enjoyment of many experiences such as eating a meal or listening to music
Why is it important to become aware of your emotions?
When you’re able to recognize when you’re feeling certain emotions, you can start to learn to control them from worsening and develop regulation and management of your emotions
It can help you with controlling yourself. When you know you are in the yellow zone, you can catch yourself before you hit the red zone
Why is it important to be able to ready emotions?
Whether you accurately interpret a quick glance from a peer or notice a friend’s disinterest in hearing your story; recognizing other people's emotions correctly, improves communication
Can indicate to you if someone is in distress and needs help
Some people don’t vocally communicate when they need help
Sometimes they just express the emotion on their face
Can indicate to you if someone isn’t in the mood to hear your jokes
Can help you recognize the effects of your actions/words on people
Why is flexible thinking important?
It helps people to get along with others
Assists people to solve problems in a new way
This will help a problem being solved in the best way possible for ourselves, and for those around us.
Prepares you for when things don’t go according to plan
It helps people with being open minded
It helps us come up with and reflect on many different solutions to a problem
Why is it important to use a social filter?
To protect other people’s feelings
So that others don’t think we are rude
To avoid embarrassment
To be respectful
Name one sensory technique we can uses to target "Hearing"
Listening to your favorite relaxing music
Play an instrument like the piano, guitar, or violin
Listening to a running stream of water, ocean waves, or the sound of rain hitting the roof
Listening to nature sounds on YouTube
What does self-regulation mean?
It means the act or process of managing yourself.
Managing our emotions and feelings so we can keep ourselves in a healthy and calm state (green zone)
Benefits to reading facial expressions
Facial expressions are probably the most important signal of the face because they tell us about a person’s current emotion, motivations, or intent
Provides messages for social interactions
They are not only signs of people’s current states, but facial expressions also signal to others to act in certain ways around that person
Like we said earlier, we wouldn’t approach someone who looks very angry
An angry facial expression could express that the individual is not open for interaction
Helps us understand our own emotions
Helps with relating to others and their emotions
One example of inflexible thinking
Not accepting other people’s ideas
Arguing the same point over and over
Getting upset when others don’t follow rules
Having trouble switching from one activity to another
Getting frustrated when small things go wrong
Not following new schedules
Struggling to take on new tasks
Repeating the same mistakes
Having trouble getting jokes
When is it okay to tell someone what you are thinking, even if it may hurt their feelings?
When the person is asking for your honest opinion
If lying could get you in trouble
If lying could be dangerous
If you need to protect the other person from harms way
Name two sensory techniques we can use to target "touch"
Touching a piece of clothing/fabric
Sensory bin
Creating art with modeling clay or finger painting
Kinetic sand, play-doh, squishy slime
Squeeze a stress ball or a beanbag
Touch a soft pet like a dog or a cat
Give someone a hug