Mental health is an important issue that can go unnoticed in tweens and teens. In today’s rapidly changing world, children face unique social and emotional challenges. Kids are experiencing greater pressures earlier in life, and feel more stress and anxiety than ever before. This collection of top-notch apps and games will help children with everything from anger management to emotional identification to meditation. The list also includes some free apps that support positive mental health for children and youth.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is extremely useful, especially when used in combination with the mindfulness-based approach of meditation to reduce the symptoms of depression.
Below you can find a list of apps for children that explore mental health in an easy, accessible way and help encourage little ones to consider their own thoughts and feelings. The list includes fun games that will keep kids engaged while also boosting their mood. Why not use these mental health apps with your child and start a discussion about how to achieve inner calm.
1. Contain Your Brain
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Contain Your Brain, developed with a clinical psychologist, helps users manage worry, anxiety, and stress through a set, sort, and solve approach. It offers strategies for different categories of worries, including those that require acceptance rather than resolution. Useful for both teachers and parents to assist kids.
Price: $4.99 (single cost)
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
2. MindShift
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
MindShift, designed with Anxiety Canada, acts as a portable coach for young adults to cope with anxiety. It teaches relaxation, understanding anxiety symptoms, and developing realistic thinking patterns. The app offers various methods to tackle anxiety-related issues like sleep quality, perfectionism, and conflict.
Price: Free (no in-app or subscription purchases).
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
3. Headspace
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Headspace provides guided meditations and mindfulness techniques for both adults and kids, focusing on calm relaxation. It helps kids with meditation exercises for bedtime and waking up, using techniques like breath awareness and counting.
Price: Free to download. Monthly subscriptions start at $9.99
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
4. Smiling Mind
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Smiling Mind is designed to help with pressure, stress, and daily challenges, particularly for students. It offers mindfulness programs for various age groups, tracking progress over time both in sessions completed and emotional changes.
Price: Free (no in-app or subscription purchases).
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
5. Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
This free app helps young children learn to handle frustrating situations using the "breathe, think, do" method. It promotes resilience, problem-solving, self-control, and planning, featuring Sesame Street characters for engagement.
Price: Free (no in-app or subscription purchases).
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
6. Calm
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Calm is a meditation app suitable for all levels, offering guided meditations of various lengths, sleep stories read by well-known voices, and guided video lessons on mindful movement and gentle stretching.
Price: Free to download. Yearly subscriptions start at $39.99
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
7. Mindful Powers™
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Mindful Powers is a mindfulness app for children aged 7 to 10, featuring child-friendly graphics and audio. It uses guided stories and a timer option to lead children towards calmness and focus.
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
8. Children's Bedtime Meditations
(Android, iPhone, iPad)
Children's Bedtime Meditations app offers free meditations to calm children's minds at bedtime, helping them drift off to sleep naturally. It includes gentle stories, soothing music, and soft sounds.
Price: Free to download. Addtional packs start at $2.99
Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android
FAQs
What Are Mental Health Apps?
Mental health apps are tools that can be accessed via your smartphone or mobile device that focus on improving different aspects of mental health and well-being.
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