Day 11 Zones of Self Regulation

Foreign welcome to day 11 sensory heroes. In this video we're going to talk about, I'm going to introduce the zones of self regulation. This is a program that we use quite a lot at my clinic at Ohana Occupational Therapy. And I thought, you know, I'd introduce it because I have had a lot of parents when I was surveying them of what they'd like to see in this app that could help people that can't either can't access occupational therapy or they're waiting for occupational therapy. Which is the reason that I have made this app in the first place. A number of them said that they would have loved to known about the zones of self regulation and, and, and that would be something that could help them before they would even get into ot. So I've put in the, the resource here where you. Their website where you can actually dig into this. It's a curriculum that teaches four different zones and then how to, how to do a lot of self regulation activities. So the four zones are, they're really like energy levels. They're not good or bad. And we all fluctuate in these zones all day long. And so the first zone is the blue zone. And the blue zone is when your energy is low. So you might just be, you might be kind of sad or you might be feeling sick or, or you're just kind of sad. But the, it's not necessarily good or bad, but it's just that you're in that like really low energy sometimes. It's like where people are when they first wake up before they get going in the day. Green zone is when your energy is just right. You're just in a really calm, peaceful, ready to learn state. It's the state we kind of want our kids in when we're teaching them or just you know, sitting at dinner. We want everybody in the green zone. And then yellow is often where a lot of our kids are. The energy is elevated and it could be that they're. Again, it's not good or bad, it's just, it's just a different energy level. So it could be excited, it could be afraid, it could be anxious, it could be a lot of different things. But you're not out of control, but you're just starting to lose control. You're coming out of that, coming out of that green zone. And recently our staff, we talked a lot about what our yellow zone triggers are and you could just be perfectly green and then something happens and all of a sudden you just feel that energy go and, and it's, it's just was very, very insightful because everybody's the things that affect them. Like, for me, something simple is like, if I can't find something will put me in the yellow zone. Because if I'm working with a child and I really need that thing, I don't want to, like, go all over looking for it. It needs. So we're super organized in our clinic. Everybody. Everything has its home. And if we move something, we make sure we let everybody know that something simple like that for me can take me right out of green into feeling that. Like, that a little bit of stress. And then the red zone is when you've lost control. You're not in control anymore. And so say you're at your favorite football team game and they won the super bowl, and everybody's, like, going crazy and throwing popcorn, and they're just like, that's out of control. But it's like a happy out of control. And then. But like, yelling or hitting or getting angry or just like that total, like, just explosion is also a red zone. So the idea with the different zones is the program is that you learn what they are first, and then you go through this phase of just modeling it, which is something you could do. You could be like, oh, mom's. Mom's in the blue zone. Mom's really tired. I just want to lay on the couch. Or it could be, I'm so frustrated. I'm. I'm filling in the yellow zone because I. I don't know, I have to be on hold and listen to staticky hold music for half an hour. I don't know. I'm just making up things. But, you know, you can model it. The important thing I always tell our parents is you don't want to start labeling like, you're in the yellow zone. You're in the red zone. Because that turns kids off immediately to this whole thing. So it's a pro. It's a. There's a progression to the whole thing on how you model it, how you introduce it. But just having them be aware is really helpful. I had this conversation with my husband on the way to the airport. I was just telling him about the zones, and. And we're really opposite. He gets. He gets really stressed out or overstimulated more easily than I do. And I. I've always been more the seeker. And he really doesn't like to fly. We're on the way to the airport. Usually he has a pretty hard time at the airport. He gets pretty anxious, but he looked like he was doing fine. So I just, I thought he was fine. And we had had just randomly talked about the zones on the way to the airport. Well, we were traveling with some staff and they all wanted to stop and eat somewhere before we got to the gate and he didn't want to. And I'm like, I felt like he was being kind of rude and I'm, and I looked at him like said something to him and that like, like that I really thought we should go sit with them because I didn't want to be, be rude. And he just looked at me, goes, I'm in the yellow zone. And I had no idea because as adults we mask so well. Like I had no idea. He goes, I just want to go get to the gate and sit down. And I was like at that point it completely changed our relationship because instead of me getting irritated with him and frustrated, I was like, oh, he really needs to just, he just needs to go to the gate and sit down and then he'll just be fine. So it's, it's, I think it's a really, it's a really good communication tool. We use it amongst ourselves. Like say we're running late for a session and we're just feeling like we're in the yellow zone, then we might have somebody step in and help us, you know, get started so we can take a, take a moment to catch our breath. You know, maybe we had a hard transition in our previous client. So that's basically it. And then I've also put in here just the illustration of the zones throughout the day. So that's one of the things that we'll teach the kids is that your, your zones change throughout the day depending on what's happening. And, and in the program what they learn to do is they learn to recognize ways to prevent themselves from getting into the yellow zone or if they're in the yellow zone, how to bring themselves back to the green. And that is through various self regulation type activities. Just learning these things about yourself that, oh, if I go sit in my cozy corner or if I do bubble mountain or if I play with my squishy toy, it' really unique to each kid. We help them develop their toolbox and we're kind of, kind of take the speed version for us as adults in this unit, in this, this week of videos because we are going to make like a little toolbox of things that, that we can go to. And, and it's not necessarily physical items, but it's kind of more like a list. Like, oh, you know, if I, if I go outside if I listen to some music or just what are those things that reset your nervous system? That sort of thing. So, but that's, that's it in a nutshell. And like I said, the, the parents that I was surveying as, as I've been developing this, and I asked them, what were the most helpful things that we've taught you since you came to Ohana that we could have taught you maybe before you came through a video? And that has been brought up a lot. So that is a little quick introduction. And if it's something you want to dive into, you can go to their website. All right. Aloha. Oh, and don't forget to fill out your worksheet. Your quick question.