Apps to help children manage worries and anxiety
If your children struggle with anxiety here are some apps to help them in a number of ways including identifying their feelings, managing their thoughts and distracting themselves through anxious moments.
Positive Penguins app is a resilience-building app for all children.
The app has a simple 5-minute guided meditation for children to learn to sit, relax and let go of the thoughts as they come into their heads.
There is also a strategy for children to understand that an event or situation happened that created an emotion in them – this emotion is not right or wrong, rather information – once they understand this and can examine the thoughts or stories they are telling themselves about situations they can then challenge the stories they tell themselves and help problem solve situations.
Meditation and mindfulness made easy and fun for kids, to help them discover and develop their superpowers of sleep, being calm, learning to breathe or to resolve conflicts. Stop, Breathe & Think Kids is a mindful games app designed specifically for kids ages 5 – 10. Kids can check into how they are feeling using fun emojis and try recommended mindful missions and meditations tuned to those emotions. Stickers reward their progress and keep the mindful activities engaging.
Smiling Mind is Australia’s leading free meditation app. Its aim is to build, support and develop healthy minds at all stages of life. Developed by psychologists, and based on mindfulness meditation techniques. The programs are targeted at different ages including one for ages 7-9 which is designed for young children who are learning new social skills, new ideas and who they are as they learn independence from parents and family. The program for ages 13-15 is designed to support teenagers as they transition to high school and make new friends.
This truly unique dictionary is a world first. Emotionary guides users through five primary emotions to find the right category of feeling, with all definitions pared back to the essentials and displayed so they can be easily compared. It’s the ideal way to develop a rich vocabulary of emotions – the essential building block for emotional intelligence.
My DPS is a customisable application that enables children to select a feeling and a coping strategy to calm themselves.
Mindful Powers is a kid-first, holistic approach to helping young minds learn and practice mindfulness so they can respond more effectively to stressful situations through the power of play. Built on a skills-based approach that helps children in early and middle childhood build a healthier relationship with life, stress, and anxiety, Mindful Powers empowers kids to bring calm to their lives at the touch of their fingertips. The app is designed to be a part of your child’s daily routine. It is simple, easy, and fun to use, so kids can pick it up and use it at any point in their day. The two key features are:• Mindful Play | voice-guided mindfulness sessions• Focus Time | a task timer
Chill Outz
Chill Outz is a collection of fun animated stories teaching children proven techniques to stay mindful & relaxed anywhere, anytime.
• Buzzy Bee – teaches children how to calm down thru humming
• Panicky Penguin – teaches children how to overcome panic thru focused breathing
• Timid Turtle – teaches children to overcome anxiety thru shrugging
• Noisy Alien – teaches children how to be OK in unfamiliar situations thru body relaxation
• Sleepy Bear – gets children ready for bed thru breathing
Breath of Light
Breath of Light is a meditative and beautiful puzzle game with a hypnotic soundtrack which could be used as a redirection and distraction/calm down tool. Players guide energy by moving rocks around the mystic garden, setting them in place and watching the energy settle into its new flow.
ConversationBuilder is designed to help primary school aged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings.
The auditory pattern of conversation is presented in a visual format to help students recognise and master the flow of conversation. Students will learn when it is appropriate to introduce themselves, ask questions, make observations and change the subject of the conversation.
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
This is a resource app for you to share with your child to help teach skills such as problem solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence.
Laugh and learn as you help a Sesame Street monster friend calm down and solve everyday challenges. This research-based app helps your child learn Sesame’s “Breathe, Think, Do” strategy for problem-solving. Tap and touch to help the monster friend take deep breaths, think of plans, and try them out! Your child will enjoy silly animations and playful interactions as they are exposed to important emotional vocabulary, a calm breathing technique, personalised encouragements, and more.
