Anyone familiar with Zones of Regulation? https://zonesofregulation.com/ @noitsbecky probably?
Looking specifically for pros/cons, any alternatives you preferred. Anecdata. The like.
1 Like
J1’s behavioural therapist spent yeeeeears working on zones of regulation with them.
All positives for us. They needed to learn how to handle emotions in the red zone. Now they walk away, years ago they threw stuff.
6 Likes
Sweeeet. Girl this curriculum is $60 it better be every page full of wisdom. Gonna read it before going whole hog on the picture books series.
4 Likes
I’ve learned about it but haven’t really worked with kids using it. Sorry!
2 Likes
Kiddo’s OT camp last summer used something like that. They (and school at one point I think?) talked about filing up your bucket and other people’s buckets too. That’s all been helpful. I need to remember to use it more actually.
3 Likes
Oh yes, have you seen the “have you filled a bucket today” kids book?
We used that a lot too
1 Like
Yeah Kiddo loved that one!
2 Likes
Not blue, but the Raising your Spirited Child lady talks about green/yellow/red zones. And how esp for spirited kids it’s important to identify their yellow zone signs early, try to get them to green. Yellow and Red isn’t when you want to be doing anything teachable, you need to calm them down to green first. Etc.
7 Likes
Is regulation a big struggle with Meowlet? It doesn’t seem like his biggest challenge from what I (imperfectly) remember you sharing – more focus, distraction, etc., but of course my perception is just from piecing together what you share here.
Raising Your Spirited Child was very helpful for me with my nephew (and probably with my kids now), who did struggle more with regulation as he got into age 4/5/6/7 and started to have battles of wills with his parents. (I babysat him several times a month.) So was How to Talk So Kids Will Listen.
Just from skimming the website, ZoR classify elation in the Red zone. Maybe that just means they’re more unpredictable and you need to watch out more for tipping over the edge (forget to eat, overwhelm themselves, etc.), but at first blush it feels weird to actively try to bring kid down from feeling elation. Now I’m really curious what they mean by that, but unwilling to shell out $60 to find out!
4 Likes
So they actually kind of categorize it the same way in raising your spirited child. I just went and checked the chart because that was my recollection.
And I always remember my grandma apparently always said to my mom and her siblings when they were growing up, “you’re getting silly, go to bed” And that’s kind of our situation around here, if stuff gets too silly and Wild, that is a pretty good sign that it’s all about to go crashing down soon 
And it’s better to start pulling the plug while everything is on the upswing then when it’s insane techno rave status sometimes. (Ex if were a walk away from home and need some regulation to get back intact).
Elation is an interesting word to choose though.
7 Likes
My understanding is that it’s not a value judgment. Different feelings have similar physiological profiles and it’s about teaching your kid to notice and regulate as needed. For example, calm (green) isn’t always the best for learning for all people, and specific call outs that all feelings are fine etc. It’s more an internal self awareness than a behavioral modification strategy.
5 Likes
We see dysregulated elation and dysregulated anything else have similar outcomes here. The not so bad ones like when you get home from an exciting day and want to stay up reliving it - great when I’m doing it although sometimes consequences the next day, not too bad for my kid but hard for me to wait up for him. Too excited to eat - awful. Too excited to toilet, not great.
And the bad outcomes: hitting, pushing, too much force, climbing walls, breaking things. And no way to come back.
I haven’t read the book - just why I can see it as a red zone emotion and need to teach regulating skills
So when I’m watching for elation (my parents might have called it getting hyper), I’m looking to steer into fun happy regulating activities or sleep. So maybe a bath. Maybe bringing the excitement to the backyard. Maybe crafts. Some of these also regulate other heightened emotions but some are more specific. And the language is different too.
Summary
This text will be hidden
An example in our family is last Saturday we went to a tiny birthday party. In fact that’s why we went, because it was 3 families and we were all sick and our family gad the age appropriate kid for the birthday kid. In our naive heads we thought this wouldn’t hit different from other family stuff.
So all we worried about when we got home was eating and going to bed. That night was miserable. We genuinely couldn’t tell how much was overexcitement or if he was getting more sick. Scream crying. Hours of it. Even once he was asleep he was still scream crying. The next day was more the processing we might have expected the day before. Looking back I can see the party was more exciting because of whose it was and because he was playing like an equal. And then we usually eat in the driveway or at a nearby fast food place before driving if he hasn’t eaten at a family event. And we usually have an hour drive not 5 min. So for success we could have done a bubble bath for about an hour as well as eating. And then read or watched a documentary or something. Which adds like 3 hours and it was already past bedtime. Except those three hours would have bought us 6 more hours of sleep
8 Likes
Oh I forgot this part!! Yes you are so right. Focus and distraction are the thing at home, but we do see overstimulation that turns into withdrawal (so seeming spacey or distracted) or silliness (laughing at inappropriate things ie if someone is mad or got hurt etc).
Brains is weird. 
When I’m overstimulated I tend to want to nap or do a murder so idk.
5 Likes
My psych also talks to me about how excitement can be equal to anxiety on the “arousement” which is similar to the scale of regulation to dysregulation. I’ve also seen it described as when tickling they can be super happy giggly but we stop when they cant talk because they’re too giggly, we let them calm down a bit because they can tip into any other high arousement emotion but also they cant let us know if the ticking hurts etc (i have experienced this, the tickling becomes overstimulation and is a horrible tortuous feeling).
6 Likes
Ooh, yeah, that clicks.
It’s funny, Spore regularly tells us “it’s too noisy”. Like, he will be the kid at the party that wants to find a quiet room with 1 or 2 other people. Or even if three adults are having an animated happy conversation. After this conversation, I’m realizing that probably helps avert some overstimulation for him.
8 Likes
I gave Kiddo ear protectors to wear at school because the lunchroom was so loud and over stimulating. I don’t know how often he wears them but it makes him feel better to have them. And also for the monthly fire drills.
For being overly happy, Kiddo loses his volume control when he’s happy and will yell in your face doc inches away when he’s wound up. I’m not a fan so it’s in my interest to head that off.
6 Likes
For us, mini Yoto and headphones and permission to withdraw at any time helps Latte. She loves parties until she does NOT and then she tries to tell everyone to leave and stop talking. 
(wherever we are, not just even our home)
8 Likes
Why would a baby puke a bunch one day, not at all the next, then once on a third day. No fever. No common foods, no irregular foods. WTF!
8 Likes
You’ve already introduced major allergens with no issues? Pipsqueak had an FPIES reaction to eggs which is vomiting (and sometimes accompanied by the kid being pretty out of it/not responsive). It can be 3-4 hours between eating the food and vomiting although with Pipsqueak it got shorter in between each time until we realized what was going on.
5 Likes