Transcript
Transcribed by Kanako Suwa
[ Introduction music plays ]
Welcome to the SENIA Happy Hour with your host, Lori Boll. We know you’re busy so we bring you 1 hour of content in under thirty minutes, leaving you with time for a true happy hour.
Lori: Hello, everyone. Today I am absolutely thrilled to welcome back a very special guest, Leah Kuypers, the creator of the Zones of Regulation. If you joined us for our first conversation a few years ago, you’ll remember Leah’s powerful insights on helping learners understand and manage their emotions through this accessible, color -coded framework. Today we’re diving deeper. Leah shares how the Zones have evolved since she first developed the curriculum, how the new digital version is transforming classrooms, and how this work aligns with inclusive trauma and neurodiversity -affirming practices.
We’ll also talk about the growing role of co -regulation, practical advice for embedding self -regulation in general ed settings, and yes, a fun twist, what would Zones inspired cocktail or mocktail look like? You really won’t want to miss her answer.
And be sure to stick around because we’re also announcing an exciting collaboration coming in April 2026 that we really can’t wait to share with you. So pour your coffee or your future zone themed mocktail and join us for this inspiring conversation with Leah Kipers. And now on to the show.
Well, hello Leah and welcome back to SENIA happy hour.
Leah: Thank you, Lori. It’s an honor to be here again.
Lori: Oh I’m really happy to have you here to talk more about Zones of Regulation, which you created which still it’s still incredible for me to like be speaking with the creator of the zones of regulation it’s like you’re a Rockstar in SENIA circles.
Leah: Oh hey congratulations on your podcast.
Lori: Oh, thank you. Thank you. So for those of our listeners who might be newer to the Zones, can you just give us a brief refresher on what they are and how they support emotional regulation and learning?
Leah: Yeah, so the Zones of Regulation can be thought of as a way to think about all these different ways we feel, the energy we have in our body, these states of alertness that we cycle through. And it gives us four categories to really lump these feelings together, helping us have an easy way to self -identify where we’re at. It gives us a bridge to communicating and co -regulating with those around us about our feelings and needs. And then it gives us a system for regulation.
So the tools that we use to, say, regulate one zone is going to look a lot different than the tools that we use to regulate, say, a zone like the blue zone where we have low energy versus the red zone when we have really high energy and strong feelings. So, with that, we have this framework that we build this metacognition around, helping build self -awareness, and that self -awareness then is really foundational for fostering self -regulation with this framework that we call, I call it the Zones. It’s very colorful. There’s four color zones, red, green, yellow, and blue, to capture these different energy and emotional states.
Lori: And excuse me, but I will just say that I use the zones all the time in my own life, just communicating with my husband or my children, just how I’m feeling. And it is it’s a game changer, even in personal relationships.
Leah: Right. It’s just this kind of easy way to make it apparent how you are and you know, then with that information No, if I say to my husband or my kids like I’m in the yellow right now Like they know like maybe this isn’t the time to bug mom about something because I’m working on managing myself and You know as I do that I might be more available for them in a moment or two.
Lori: Yeah cool, well many of us own like the Zones of Regulation book and the printable activities that you’ve given through the years, but you’re now transitioning to a digital curriculum. So how does this new format enhance the zones learning experience for educators and students?
Leah: Yeah, well we are, we have taken that original curriculum that you know came out of my work in the schools and my capstone my graduate work and you know that was first published and well I first really wrote the curriculum in oh wait and most published in 2011 and just that was quite a long time ago.
And so we’ve made I’ve made little tweaks to the curriculum over time But it really needed a refresh. There’s so much research that has come out in that time frame. I’ve included Best practices to support neurodivergent learners. We’ve integrated in trauma -informed practices in this new curriculum we have a much more diverse cast of characters to Represent the different emotions and feelings in the zones that we’ve integrated in with a new curriculum, we use universal design for learning to help support accessibility and differentiation for learners who have very support needs.
And in addition, just the zones framework has evolved and I’ve, you know, had new ideas I’ve wanted to update some of the concepts along the way and so with when thinking about what’s the best way to support that I felt a digital curriculum would make it an easier medium to support learners and make it more engaging.
You know, part of this evolution too is based on feedback over the years and really trying to be responsive to what people have been asking me for and so easy to teach was one of the requests. So people using the zones do not have to look for additional resources on the internet or try to scrap together their own visuals. We put a digital library in with hundreds of visuals and activities for them to choose from. That is also differentiated for learners so that maybe if you have secondary age kids we have visuals, we have that support. That age group, if you have learners who are emerging in the regulation and have maybe, they’re non -speaking, we have visual supports that are going to help them be able to access the curriculum and digitally we could build in interactivities so that they can drag and, you know, engage in little games, activities, adventures, virtual reality. So there’s like riding the red zone roller coaster to get them in touch with their red zone body signals and cues. And there’s digital dodgeball and there’s going for a jungle hunt. So that I wanted to have kids use more movement. So actually with, even though people think screens digital, we were able to incorporate a lot more movement into this curriculum. And when we do say it’s a digital curriculum, it’s really designed for the adult to be accessing it. And then there have this whole bank of lessons and visuals and resources, as well as interactive presentation. So it’s not just giving a kid an iPad and say do the zones. It’s really dependent on an adult facilitating and the digital platform holds all this content. And, you know, gives us the chance to do videos and, you know, mediums that were not accessible in a print version.
Lori: It all sounds incredible. You know, you mentioned about people searching on the internet and finding different resources and things. Why do you believe it’s essential to really follow the zones curriculum that you have to with fidelity?
Leah: Yeah, I have, you know, been in classrooms and talked with caregivers and therapeutic centers and, you know, I hear, oh yeah, we’re doing the zones. And I’m like, okay, like, you know, how’s it going for you? And they’re like, well, you know, we got these four pictures of feelings on our wall. And I’m like, oh, that’s not doing the zones, like, it’s like they hear a little bit about the zones and they’re like, oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
And I’m shocked that they have no curriculum to guide them. They’re like, well, I printed off this inside out characters in the four zones from the internet that I found for free. And looking at some of these visuals that they find, it’s a really misrepresentation of my values, the mission of the zones. And so when you’re using the curriculum, you’re going to be implementing with fidelity. You’re going to have these best practices integrated into it. You know, there’s sometimes misrepresentation of what feelings go in which zones.
I’ve seen very biased representations where there is poor diversity represented and more biases in how it’s represented on the zones. And when you’re using the curriculum, you’re investing in the digital curriculum that we officially created, like we have tested everything. We have had experts guide us and mentorship and partnering with people of color to make sure that it is sensitive and culturally relevant for different populations. We had a neurodiversity expert screen our curriculum.
And so we’re really trying to give you a really quality product that doesn’t have any oversights like that. And, and although…
Yeah on another note like I recognize the zones is very simple in its framework and yet this is the developmental skill and This is more than just putting four colors on the wall and having the zones be part of them that we really have in -depth lessons and Walk you through truly fostering these regulation competencies and building upon That knowledge concept after concept helping advance the learner through this regulation development and In in doing so also building the adults skill set around them to be stronger co -regulators for the individual that’s learning
Lori: That’s great. Thank you. Well, since you mentioned co -regulation, how do you balance supporting co -regulation in classrooms with the goal of helping students become more independent in their own self -regulation?
Leah: Yeah, I thought this was a fantastic question. You know, I really appreciate just the conversations around co -regulation that have been happening, because I, in originally writing the Zones curriculum, its subtitle is to foster self -regulation. And that still is a goal of this curriculum, is to foster self -regulation.
But in doing so, you need strong co -regulators in the picture and that self -regulation is a byproduct of healthy co -regulation for an individual first and that I think we also lose sight of even as adults. We’re still co -regulating like I’m sure Lori you you know Talk to your husband about something that might be bothering you or you call you know a friend when you are going through something hard and so I think we lose sight as adults that we’re still co -regulating and needing the support
So, in this second edition of the digital curriculum, we’ve really put a lot more focus on the co -regulator role and that it’s okay for, as the child too, using co -regulation tools, like that is something that we’re not trying to lose sight of and just focus on the self -regulation that we might have a lot of co -regulation tools in our tool talk to a friend or ask for help are some co -regulation tools. And so, I think to kind of get back to your question, sometimes it is shifting the mindset of adults as, hey, this is your role. You know, as a teacher, as a therapist, you are a co -regulator and the zones helps make that a little easier for you. It gives you a common language with the learner. It gives you visual supports to help to uh have those discussions around feelings and regulation uh but uh it’s also we’re helping build these competencies over time and just because we’re doing the zones it doesn’t magically mean these kids are self -regulating uh again this is a developmental process and a lot of our learners come to us on this continuum of development that might be a little behind some of their peers and so not having that expectation that they’re instantly going to be self -regulators there’s no behavior anymore if we’re doing the zones um i don’t want to sugarcoat it this is still a skill that we’re working on and that’s why we also talk about with the zones that we continue to circle back through the concepts it’s not just like we did the zones one year and we’re because we’re all deepening our understanding of our feelings our awareness of uh our signals our toolbox of strategies. And, you know, I’ve yet to meet an adult who is, you know, able to self -regulate 100 % of the time without any prompts or support. So, you know, I think part of this is just a little bit of a mindset shift that we’re all in it together.
Lori: Yeah, I love that. And I see zones a lot of times in the kind of higher support needs classrooms throughout the US and internationally, and starting to see it in more general education classrooms as well. And I imagine it would be a great goal for all schools, to start it early, and just continue it all the way through school.
Leah: Yeah, we work with some districts that it cycles through into the middle school and even the high school.
Lori: Oh, fantastic.
Leah: From the elementary. So yeah, that’s a wonderful model. You know, it makes my heart happy because then I know we have a really inclusive space for the learners who do need more support, who might you know, additionally benefit from the teacher being able to be that stronger co -regulator for them to have, you know, and even I’ve also kind of as a, Side note just think about you know, I think sometimes we think co -regulation or You know self -regulation is them just doing it on their own But like if the teachers even using that visual to say instead of like, you know You’re getting clipped up on our chart and say hey, let’s check in with the zones. Where are you at? Or how are you feeling? that’s still that’s co -regulation and It’s helping that learner build more self -regulation capacity And they have that common language where maybe we can keep that learner in the classroom learning with their peers using a tool or strategy that is Just one of many tools and strategies that are commonly used in that space so one of the things I really like to promote is this idea that regulation is the norm and not the exception we’re all regulating and what we don’t necessarily talk about is how we’re doing it, but in our mind, we’re maybe using some self -talk or we’re fidgeting in our seat to stay focused. We’re, that adult in that space is using strategies just like the kids are in that space. And so when they can model the regulation that they’re using, when they can create a welcoming environment to say, hey, it’s okay to use tools. I’m using tools here. I got my water bottle cause I am, you know, a little sluggish today in the blue zone. So I need to, you know, keep myself energized or I’m, you know, maybe feeling overwhelmed in the yellow zone. Do you mind if we take the lights down? to calm this environment a little bit for me. Then we’re creating this mentality, this climate where it’s not just one kid regulating who needs, you know, maybe special support, but it’s, everyone has these regulation needs, everyone goes through a wide range of feelings and, you know, moves through the zones. And so when we can create that sort of climate, that all feelings are okay, all zones are okay, and regulating them as the norm. Now we can keep learners in the classroom, helping them have the support that they need for regulation in an environment that feels welcoming to do that.
Lori: That’s great. You mentioned earlier about how you had reviewers come in and you discussed having a neurodiverse audience work with you. How does Zone’s framework align with neurodiversity affirming practices and also trauma -informed approaches?
Leah: Yeah, so we, in regards to the neurodiversity affirming practices, we really try to listen to the community and respond. So you’ll find that there is no more traffic signs aligned with the zones. That was one piece where some people were interpreting the stop sign associated with the red zone as stop having those feelings when really it was meant as to signal to pause and just notice do I need to regulate. And so that was a misinterpretation that I didn’t intend but we can fix that. And so we unwove all the traffic signs from the curriculum. We make it front. There’s a whole concept. There’s 10 concepts are essentially we call it a concept as a unit of learning in the new digital curriculum. And there’s one whole concept around all feelings are okay, all zones are okay.
And that the zones isn’t trying to tell you how to feel or which zone to be in, but rather we really are welcoming that zone, that feeling that we’re experiencing, and we’re thinking about do I need to regulate it to be successful. And so we talk in the curriculum, the learners explore what their goals are, and they regulate around their goals that are authentic to them, not a norm that’s imposed upon them. So really trying to give them voice and agency and really also being much more explicitly clear so that
As the interactive presentations are being used with the learners, there’s no room for misinterpretation or misuse of the zone. So this kind of, what I saw as this, I guess, mistaken practice around the zones was this pressure to get back into the green. And that was never my intention. The green zone feels very comfortable often, but it’s not necessarily the zone that serves us best in some situations. If, you know, if I’m in danger, the red zone is going to work well. If, you know, I’m trying to sleep at fall asleep, the blue zone works well for me. And so, I’ve… always had this intention that the zones are all equal, but, and sometimes it feels good to be in the green and to know that we won’t always be in this uncomfortable feeling state. Yet that got misimplied as a behavior approach that could feel really uncomfortable for some learners who are feeling like they have to appease the adult and all of a sudden now the zones are backfiring because they’re afraid to say they’re in any other zone except for the green. And that certainly is just causing internal dysregulation for that individual. And so. It is very crystal clear that you can be in whatever zone that, you know, matches what you’re feeling on the inside. And as they progress through the curriculum, they think about, do I need to regulate it? What’s my goals? What’s in front of me that I’m trying to accomplish and what’s going to be best for my well -being? And so we talk a lot about well -being too in the curriculum.
So that was the neurodiversity -affirming practice, kind of touches on that. In regards to the trauma -informed practices, we, in every concept introduction, you can look at the considerations and we have trauma -informed practices spelled out for each concept and things that you might want to take into consideration. So for example, when we talk about the Zones Check -in, that is another concept in this curriculum that learners who come to us with a history of trauma may feel very uncomfortable checking in in front of other peers and that we want to be able to honor that. We’re never forced someone to check in, we can offer private ways to check in, and you know that we suggest for example that for some activities, you know, don’t tell kids to close their eyes because that can be triggering for some kids who come to us with a history of trauma. So try to weave in considerations into the curriculum to help support the, what we call the zones leaders in making the best decisions in implementation considering their population that they’re working with.
Lori: Wow, very thoughtful.
Leah: We tried.
Lori: Yeah, very impressive. How long did it take you to recreate everything in the digital format?
Leah: Once we got started, we did it all in about a year, if you can believe it. Wow, maybe a little over we had. We worked fast and furious and I had already written Kind of what is the second book getting into the zones of regulation was already drafted and that was And I had the curriculum model already outlined in Before With outside of that year and a half But once we sat down and really like got our you know that kind of the tech side because I don’t know how to do these things digitally, but I I got a lot of ideas and Emily walls is my director of Education and her and I just jammed out like tons of concept ideas and mapped out I had different activities to support them. And so we would feed the content. And then digitally, we worked with a company to help it come alive. And I have a graphic designer on staff, too, who just really helped it visually come to life and really created a lot of, we put a lot of iconography throughout the curriculum to help learners who don’t have as much language be able to access and visually understand a lot of the content, too. And so that was a kind of fun thing to work on.
Lori: Yeah, it does. It sounds really fun and exciting. And it must be so rewarding to see the end product.
Leah: It is. I’m incredibly proud of it. And I, you know, it was something that it took me, I had written lessons, you know, 10 years ago, for a second book, and we had some family health things going on. And I just had to put that all away for a lot of years. And I think there was a little kind of trauma around getting it back out. And I did a lot of other Zones projects, but the kind of like the second edition just really got kind of was associated with a hard, hard part of my life as a parent and with my children. And so I’m going, my son had pans, pandas, and that took center stage. So he’s doing wonderfully and thriving and you know it and so I had these old lessons most of them I didn’t really use Because as I said so much has evolved in that time too That there was snippets that came through and you’ll find in the new curriculum We do have some of the same activities like we took the best of the original curriculum Sure, and just like blew it up Though there’s so much more in it. Um, but yeah, I do I am excited.
I I’ve I Really tried so hard to integrate in so many different like thinking of the mentality of you know every kid on my caseload and what what do I need to make it work for this kid versus this kid versus this kid and this teacher and this parent or care, you know like perspective and Pull it together to create a really inclusive package
Lori: Yeah, I can’t wait Well, I usually ask this question at the very end but I have one more after this. So this question is to go along with our happy hour theme If you were to create a cocktail or a mocktail inspired by the zones What might the ingredients be and what would you name it?
Leah: um well, okay, I Have a love for a little splash of grapefruit to go into my cocktails so, um, let’s say it’s a tequila soda with a Splash of grapefruit and I’ll choose tequila because I like to keep things a little spicy And we’ll call it the ruby red zone
Lori: Nice. I love it. Ruby red zone. Okay. I know as I was thinking about this question and what you might answer, I was thinking of all the different colored liqueurs and everything. So I was thinking, well, it could be green, Midori. So.
Leah: Yeah, I don’t like sweet cocktails.
Lori: So. There you go.
Leah: There you go. Well, that’s exciting. And then a little bitter and tart.
Lori: All right. Well, now our final question. We, SENIA, and Leah, we have an exciting collaboration to share with our listeners. So Leah, where will you be April 10th, 2026?
Leah: I am going to be presenting for SENIA at the pre -conference of their Dubai International Conference. Yes. So I will be in the United Arab Emirates.
Lori: We are so excited. Yes, so everyone listening, Leah will be there presenting about the zones. And it’s a full day pre -conference. So it’s a deep, deep dive, deep learning. A deep dive in the framework and setting the foundation for regulation, as well as really exploring how to teach all these concepts and build the climate in your setting to help foster and support regulation thriving in that environment.
Leah: Yeah.
Lori: Well, I’m excited.
Leah: I’m excited too.
Lori: I would say we can’t wait, but we’ve got lots of things coming up ahead of time So we can wait just till April And we’ll see you in Dubai.
Leah: I will see you in Dubai. Thank you, Lori.
Lori: Thanks, Leah.
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Thank you for joining us for today’s show. For more information including how to subscribe and shownotes, please head to our website. That’s SENIAinternational.org/podcasts. Until next time… cheers!
