Helping your children to maintain their mental health is crucial, if you encourage the right attitudes and skills now, your child will be more likely to become a mentally healthy adult. Kids have little stress and anxieties just like adults do, the trick is to provide your child with the right coping strategies. There are several apps you can use to support your child’s mental health. Let’s explore a few of these options, along with some simple tips.
Mental health apps for kids
1 . Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame is an application to help children cope with difficult situations. The ‘breath, think, do’ technique encourages kids to take deep breaths to become calm; brainstorm strategies to solve a problem; and then put these into place. With the help of the app, your kids can develop resilience, and learn how to independently overcome challenges. The app features characters from the popular kids show Sesame Street, helping kids to overcome tricky situations independently. A few of the best features include:
- Parent section with tips and resources.
- Pop bubbles to help your monster breathe, and solve issues.
- Interactive activities with unique challenges every day.
The application was developed for kids aged between 2 and 5 years old.
2. Mindful Powers
Mindful Powers is an application designed to help young children learn about and practice mindfulness. Learning about mindfulness will help your children to effectively deal with stress. Using these play-based activities children can develop their mental health, and practice positive thinking. Features of the app include:
- A task timer, to build focus.
- Mindfulness games.
- Mindfulness sessions, guided by voice.
With the help of the app kids can practice skills such as getting along with friends; dealing with big emotions; concentration skills; and reducing stress.
3. Yoga For Kids Daily Fitness
Yoga is one of the best activities you can do to improve mental and physical health. With the help of this app, your kids can learn all the basic yoga poses, including Cobra, Cat, Bridge Pose, and Downward Dog. The app offers a fun intro to yoga, helping your children to practice relaxation while improving flexibility and boosting endorphins. Yoga For Kids is the perfect app to boost confidence, improve concentration, and learn something new.
4. Headspace
Headspace is one of the leading meditation apps, as well as meditation sessions for adults, there’s also an extensive kids section. Headspace divides the meditation and mindfulness activities into age-appropriate sections. There are ‘First Steps’ activities designed for 3-5-year-olds, and ‘Curious Minds’ activities aimed at 6-8-year-olds. Then there’s a section called ‘Growing Up’, which is for 9-12-year-olds. Many studies indicate that meditation is helpful to improve our mental health, and kids can start learning at any age. All of these meditation activities are engaging and fun, helping your child to become more mindful and healthy.
Tips to support mental health
5. Creativity
Creativity is a fantastic outlet to improve your child’s mental health. With the help of creative activities, they can express themselves, release tense emotions, boost endorphins and relax. There are so many ways that kids can get creative whether it’s through dancing, painting, musical instruments, or creative writing. Provide your children with a creative activity box, or ask them if there are any creative classes that they are interested to enroll in. By trying new things, your child may well discover hidden talents.
6. Discuss Difficult Feelings
Encourage your children to discuss difficult emotions from an early age. They need to understand that it’s okay to talk about whatever they are feeling, whether it’s sadness or anger. It’s particularly important to encourage discussions if there are problems at home. For example, kids might find it tough if you are meeting with family law attorneys to start divorce proceedings. If your kids are old enough, sit down with them to have a sensitive talk about the situation.
7. Limit Social Media Time
Social media can be a fantastic tool, but it can also negatively affect a child’s mental health. Ensure that you put measures in place to keep your child safe online, and limit their social media time per day. Social media is only appropriate for older children, and even then, excessive use is not advised. Make it clear to your kids how much time they can spend on socials per day, and ensure that you supervise this.
8. Connect With The Natural World
Connecting with nature is a fantastic way to raise endorphin levels, get exercise, and practice wholesome activities. Make sure that your kids have plenty of time outdoors, whether it's hiking, camping, swimming, or simply playing in the park. You might like to start a vegetable patch in your garden and let them help out? Perhaps they’d like family bike rides to explore the forests nearby?
9. A Balanced Diet
Simple but very important, kids need a balanced diet to feel both physically and mentally healthy. Ensure that you’re kids get plenty of vegetables and nutrients, and keep junk foods to a minimum. One great way to teach kids about nutrition is to get them involved in cooking. There are plenty of easy recipes that you can make with your kids online. Eating the right foods can improve your mood, as well as your health.
10. Plenty Of Exercise
To maintain your mental health, it’s crucial to get enough exercise. Encourage your kids to exercise as much as possible whether it’s games in the house, or playing sports outside. Too much sitting around in front of the TV can have a negative effect on your child’s mental health, so they must stay active.
As you can see, there are plenty of simple ways to support your child’s mental health, often it’s the little things that can make a big difference. Lastly, remember that you are your child’s biggest role model. Allow them to see you taking care of your health, and these good values will rub off on them. With tools and tips like these you’ll protect your child’s future.
