The Best Apps for Children's Mental Health (Top 10)

Mental health apps are a popular and convenient way to support positive mental health and personal growth. While they don't replace interventions like therapy, mental health apps can support emotional fitness through various features, such as guided meditations, breathing exercises, thought journals, and more. It's essential to start teaching kids to take care of their mental health early on, and with the availability of apps like these, it's easier than ever before. But how do you choose which app to use?

In this article, we'll go over helpful mental health apps for kids and their features to help you decide. We have included apps for multiple age groups, starting with the best - Joon.

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Mental Health Apps For Kids

If you're looking for a child's mental health app, you may find yourself with an overwhelming number of options to choose from. Learning about their unique purposes and features can help. Some apps teach common meditation techniques and encourage other similar tools to aid mental well-being, like breathing exercises or listening to soothing music, whereas others take a different approach. Review the following apps to get an idea of what's out there and make an informed choice.

#1 Rated: Joon

Joon encourages self-esteem and independence while helping kids finish important daily life tasks, such as personal hygiene activities, homework, and chores. It is an app designed uniquely for kids with ADHD and related disorders ages 6-12+. How does it work?

Parents start by downloading the Parent App. In the Joon Parent App, parents customize a real-life task list for their children. Kids interact with a separate app called Joon Pet Game. When they complete the tasks their parents assign in real life, they get virtual rewards in the Joon Pet Game that allow them to take care of a pet of their choice in the game. Joon is a great way to motivate kids while keeping things fun!

The Joon Pet Game app includes audio buttons for children who are not yet able to read so that they can benefit from Joon, too. Joon is backed by child psychologists, teachers, and occupational therapists. Many parents say that Joon has improved their parent-child relationship.

Joon offers a one-week free trial. After that, you can choose from one of our monthly or yearly payment plans.

Click here to try Joon for free.

MindShift

MindShift is a mental health app designed for adolescents ages 12 or older. With the MindShift app, young adults learn skills derived from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a common form of therapy used to address negative thoughts and mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression. It includes daily check-ins, goal-setting tools, meditations, tips, and active steps to help young people overcome mental health struggles. Users can even share data from the app with mental health professionals, such as their personal therapist.

Mindshift is a free app, and it is available for Apple devices.

Smiling Mind

Developed by educators and psychologists, Smiling Mind is a free meditation app for people of all ages. Smiling Mind offers programs for kids ages 3-12, youth ages 13-18, and adults ages 19+, which can be used for stress, sleep, and more. Smiling Mind offers dark mode in the app, which can be beneficial for those who wish to use it to wind down. Some of the meditations are as short as a few minutes long, which can help keep your child's attention.

Smiling Mind is a free app.

Headspace

The Headspace app is a well-known meditation and mindfulness app that might've come across your radar before. Headspace shows users common meditation and mindfulness techniques they can use to overcome frustrations and reduce stress, including environmental sounds and other soothing stimuli. While Headspace was initially geared toward adults, the app now includes a kid's series of breathing exercises, visualizations, and meditations. Older kids and teens can most likely navigate Headspace on their own, but if you have younger children, it may be ideal to try Headspace first or use it with them.

Headspace gives new users a two-week free trial. After that, Headspace offers various monthly and yearly payment plans. If you pay for Headspace Plus, which costs a bit more than the regular version of the app, you'll get additional features.

Calm Kids

Calm Kids is a mindful meditation app for children. The app teaches meditations and other proven techniques such as yoga, breath awareness, and body scans. The goal of these tools is to help users lower, fall asleep, and cope with their emotions. The age rating for the Calm Kids app is 4+ in the App Store.

The basic version of Calm Kids is free. However, in-app purchases allow users who want the features of Calm Kids Plus (the paid version of the app) to choose from a one-month, one-year, or lifetime plan.

The Zones Of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation app is designed for everyone from elementary school-aged children to adults. It was created to help students obtain skills in regulating behavior, managing emotions, increasing self-control, and optimizing problem-solving capabilities. It's a fun, engaging app with rewards and mini-games to keep kids stimulated while promoting self-reflection and self-regulation.

The Zones of Regulation app costs $5.99.

Sleep Meditations For Kids

Sleep Meditations For Kids is a relatively self-explanatory app. Sleep is a critical part of self-care, and so often, children and adults alike don't get enough. The Sleep Meditations For Kids app has a number of meditations designed specifically to help kids stay calm, reduce anxiety and stress, and get to sleep.

The app offers one free meditation. In-app purchases allow users to access other guided meditations.

DreamyKid Meditation App

While some other meditation apps aren't unique to kids, DreamyKid is. DreamyKid is an app for families who want to give their kids the benefits of adding meditation to their child's wellness routine. The app includes different mediation categories, including sleep stories and meditations, morning meditations, and positive affirmations. It also includes meditations for ADHD and other specific challenges, like bed wetting and confidence. DreamyKid is a fantastic app if you're looking to access a variety of meditations for children all in one place.

DreamyKid offers a two-week free trial so your child can try it to see if they like it first. After that, parents can choose from a monthly subscription at $9.99 or a yearly subscription priced at $69.99.

Positive Penguins

Positive Penguins is an app that walks children through emotional challenges and helps them understand why they feel the way they do. By learning to understand feelings without judgment, the app aids emotion regulation and helps kids learn to cope with their feelings. The Positive Penguins app offers a 5-minute meditation, too, so that kids can learn to sit, relax, and let go of their thoughts. While the age rating is 4+ in the App Store, Positive Penguins is designed for ages 9-11.

Positive Penguins costs $0.99. 

Breath, Think, Do With Sesame

Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame is an app intended for kids ages 2-5 and their caregivers to use together. The app is a resource that helps parents teach their children skills that help them solve everyday challenges. For example, self-control, task persistence, problem-solving, and planning. Kids learn to take deep belly breaths with their monster friends in the app, learn emotion-related vocabulary, and get words of encouragement. Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame is a great app for those with younger children who want to set their kids up for success and give kids tools that support positive mental health early on. Children can use the app in English or Spanish.

Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame is free to use.

Takeaway

Nowadays, there are a host of different mental health apps on the market to choose from. Mental health apps may employ journaling, to-do lists, guided meditations, soothing music, and other features to help users navigate their life, lower stress, and gain tools that can help them cope with frustrating situations. Learning about the different mental health apps available for kids can help you find the one that suits your family’s needs best. Some apps, like Joon, are backed by mental health professionals and other providers, including child psychologists and occupational therapists, which can give parents peace of mind.