Article
A short primer on the RULER framework
Research · Manisha Manchanda · 7 Apr 2026

RULER is an acronym from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence: Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, Regulate. It’s a framework, not a curriculum.
How we use it
RULER gives us a shared structure — the feelings vocabulary, the “Meta-Moment”, the regulation strategies — that we adapt to K–6 children in Thailand. We don’t treat it as the whole answer, but the bones of it are solid.
Where we go beyond it
We pair RULER with nonviolent communication scripts for conflict, and with picture-book anchors that children in Bangkok actually recognize. That’s the local work.


