Top 10 apps to help your child’s mental wellbeing
Editorial Feature
It’s not just adults that must deal with the stresses and strains of modern-day life, our kids feel it too. Nurturing positive mental health in young people gives them a head-start for future challenges at university and in the working world beyond it. Teaching young people how to meditate, communicate their feelings and regulate their emotions will also help them in their friendships and day-to-day classroom life.
1. Calm Kids
Parents who practice mindfulness themselves may already be familiar with the Calm app, but did you know there’s a section for kids?
You can engage in family exercises and bedtime stories to help reduce stress and keep kids calm, while also spending quality time together. Calm has a great reputation for helping overall wellbeing in adults and kids, and the family options are included in the Calm monthly subscription fee.
2. Chill Panda
This NHS-approved mental health app is a parenting secret weapon hiding behind an adorable name.
Chill Panda helps kids by suggesting activities to suit their state of mind, tailoring to their needs and helping them identify their emotions. This app should help your kids relax and feel less anxious about school and friends.
3. Headspace for Kids
Much like Calm, adult subscribers can take advantage of wellbeing activities for their children via the Headspace app. Breathing exercises will help your kids relax and become more aware of their feelings and surroundings.
You can also introduce them to meditation via Headspace, which will equip them with skills to access a ‘zen’ state when things get stressful outside of the home.
4. DreamyKid
DreamyKid appreciates that kids lead busy lives too! The app offers 10-minute meditations for your kids to listen to upon sleeping or waking, to get their brains ready for the day ahead of them. They want to centre your children and equip them with mental health tools to ‘survive’ everyday emotional situations, from childhood through to adulthood.
5. Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
“Sunny day, everything’s A-OK” sings the Sesame Street theme tune, but how do you prepare your kids for when things aren’t A-OK?
Two is not too young to learn how to regulate and identify emotions, and this is the starting age for Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame. Your kids help a Sesame Street monster achieve a sense of calm in this fun, family-focused app. The game helps train their brains to overcome challenges in their own lives.
6. Mind Moose
Your kids are helped to identify their own strengths and harness them to live a happy life with the interactive app, Mind Moose.
Kids can gain a better understanding of the way brains function and how they can make their own brains work more efficiently. They’ll be equipped with skills that set them up for navigating friendships and classroom situations that might cause stress or upset.
7. Positive Penguins
In this game, four penguin pals guide kids to identify their feelings and measure their positive and negative emotions in this fun app with adorable animations. Evi, Ollie, Happ and Buddy are all positive penguins with good messages to pass on to your little loved ones. Giving these cartoon friends emotions to explore will help your kids communicate the way they feel.
8. Smiling Mind
Aimed at age 7 and up, this app helps kids deal with their day-to-day worries and emotional management through mindfulness techniques. There’s a special pandemic-relevant feature called Thrive Inside which trains kids to stay calm when stuck inside the house.
9. Worrinots
The digital answer to worry dolls, Worrinots allows kids to record or write messages to four characters detailing their feelings. This should help alleviate the stresses or concerns the kids are dealing with, and the app helps kids identify and cope with their emotions.
10. Daniel Tiger’s Grr-ific Feelings
A great app to learn about feelings and how to identify them! In Daniel’s Trolley Game, children play more than a dozen mini-games about feelings featuring Daniel and friends. Daniel teaches kids to practice calming down through breathing exercises, and to count when they feel frustrated or angry.
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