While many health and well-being apps can offer great support, sometimes a child needs a little extra help dealing with their anxiety. Anxiety symptoms are common in children and adolescents, with 10-20% of school-aged children experiencing anxiety symptoms. So how can you help to reduce your child's anxiety and stress?
Kids of all ages can reap the benefits of meditation and mindfulness using technology. These apps can help your child learn to meditate and be mindful. Children can learn to cope with anxiety by learning two crucial skills: calming down and solving problems. Knowing how to help your child manage his or her anxiety can go a long way in helping them behave better.
We have highlighted the 10 best apps for anxiety that can help children learn ways to manage their fears and reduce their anxieties. These anxiety apps teach children coping strategies so they can use them to help them deal with whatever troubling event they encounter, as well as boosting their resilience for life.
Read on to download the anxiety apps for kids that can help soften anxiety, reduce stress and restore calmness.
Contain Your Brain is developed in conjunction with a clinical psychologist to help its users deal with worry, anxiety, and stress. It uses a simple concept of set, sort, and solve and provides the support to implement it. The app provides strategies for dealing with each category of worry, including those you must accept rather than resolve. It also helps you structure when you deal with those worries by organising time to set aside to focus on them. Teachers and parents may find it useful for themselves but also to help their kids deal with problems.
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
If we missed any of the 10 Best Anxiety Apps for Kids, tell us about them!
Headspace for Kids is a great anxiety app for kids to help reduce stress. It has stories that guide kids through meditations on five themes: Calm, Focus, Kindness, Sleep and Wake Up. It helps kids be kids, focus, self-aware, and less stressed. The app has short, animated videos and sessions (3-minutes long) for different feelings and ages (5, 6-8 and 9-12). It uses breathing, visualization and focus-based meditation. Parents and kids can learn meditation and mindfulness basics. The app reminds kids to meditate every day and helps them grow and reflect in different situations.
Price: Free to try ($7.99 to $12.99 per month subscription)
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
Stop, Breathe & Think is a meditation app for kids in middle school and older. It helps kids and adults develop positive habits of mind and cope with stress. Kids can do guided meditation exercises on their phones. Parents and teachers who practice mindfulness can listen better and make better decisions. Stop, Breathe & Think believes that feeling calm every day is as important as regular exercise. If you're a parent looking to download one the the best anxiety apps for kids then you need to check-out Stop, Breathe & Think.
Price: You can access more than 20 activities for free. Premium memberships are $10 monthly or $59 annually
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
4. DreamyKid Meditation
(iPhone, iPad)
DreamyKid is an easy-to-use meditation app that includes kid-friendly guided visualizations, affirmations, and meditations that parents and kids alike are loving. Kids can listen to selections for promoting relaxation, falling asleep more easily, focusing for school, and more. It teaches kids mindfulness techniques that can make them happier and healthier. It has different programs for different issues and goals. The calming effects of this app makes it one of the best anxiety apps for kids.
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
Calm is primo when it comes to choosing a meditation app for kids that can also help with anxiety. Calm is helping kids around the world fall asleep so that their parents can also get a little peace and relaxation. Parents love that Calm offers sleep stories to read to kids to help them relax and sleep better. Calm ranks as one of the top mindfulness and wellness apps for adults but it also has a great section for children, Calm Kids. Calm has many relaxing sessions from 3 min to unguided. Daily Calm gives you a 10-minute exercise to start your day. Calm is one of the best anxiety apps for kids.
Price: Free to try ($69.99 per year)
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
Breathe, Think, and Do with Sesame is one of the best apps for anxiety because it helps kids learn to deal with frustrating situations using the "breathe, think, do" method. This anxiety app for kids is intended for parents and caregivers to use with their young children to help teach skills such as problem-solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence to work through frustrating situations. It has mini-games to help your little ones breathe, solve problems and feel better. It teaches kids to calm down through breathing. It is good for very young kids to learn about calming down.
Price: Free
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
Smiling Mind is a unique mindfulness app developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. There are programs for kids in different age groups, as well as for schools, workplaces, and sports making it one of the best anxiety apps for kids. This free mindfulness app is designed to help kids manage stress, resilience, anxiety, depression and improve general health and wellbeing making it one of the best apps for anxiety available today. This app has a fantastic section on Mindfulness in the Classroom and is suited for kids ages 7-18.
Price: Free
Platform: Android, iPhone, iPad
At a time when bullying and depression is on the increase amongst children and adolescents, an educational app to help build self esteem and optimism has been created by a Melbourne schoolgirl and her family. Positive Penguins is one of a kind. One of the best anxiety apps for kids, Positive Penguins HD is a simple, interactive, educational tool to help children understand their emotions and to experience them in a positive way. It also provides children with practical ways to understand and cope with these emotions and, most importantly, change the way they think.
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: iPhone
Moshi is a calming app created just for children. It offers 30-minute stories based on the Moshi Monsters game characters, that are designed to send children to sleep. Moshi app is a subscription-based collection of calming audio tracks meant to help young kids drift off to sleep. Moshi is an award-winning audio app that helps millions of families experience calm and relaxing bedtimes by helping kids drift off to sleep quickly and easily.
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: iPhone, iPad and Android
Price: Free to try ($9.99 per month subscription)
Platform: iPhone, iPad and Android
If your child or teenager is struggling with anxiety, read our apps for ways you can support them and places you can get help.
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