Lisa Dobey and Michelle Levine-Schmitt headed to Minneapolis this month to attend the American Psychological Association Convention where they presented their study “Virtual Delivery of the Zones of Regulation Curriculum during the Covid-19 Pandemic” in a poster session. Dobey is the clinical supervisor for the mental health team and Levine-Schmitt is a school psychologist for ALL Academy. The third author on the study is former Aspire school psychologist, Tiffany Kerzner.

Their poster reported on the work they did during the pandemic to deliver a well-known social-emotional curriculum, the Zones of Regulation, in a virtual format. Virtual instruction remained important throughout the 2020-2021 school year because of intermittent closures and the need to keep groups of students separate due to the COVID pandemic.

The study showed that virtual delivery of social emotional instruction has potential impact for neurodiverse students. Participants improved their emotional awareness and were able to identify appropriate coping skills. Even though school pandemic restrictions are no longer in place, virtual instruction may continue to be a useful tool for homebound students or as a means to expand service capacity.

As part of the program evaluation, the authors developed an innovative data collection tool that facilitated their work. They plan further study of the curriculum using the new tool. Dobey noted that, “the Zones of Regulation curriculum is widely used in schools, but there’s not much research data on its impact, even when it’s delivered in person.”