Headspace
Headspace is one of the best-known meditation and mindfulness apps. It was founded in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk whose voice still guides many of its core courses, and Rich Pierson.
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Joon
Joon is a chore and routine app for kids ages 6 to 12, built with kids who have ADHD in mind. It works as two linked apps. Parents use the Joon app to assign everyday tasks, which Joon calls Quests, such as brushing teeth, packing a backpack, or starting homework. Kids use a separate app, Joon Pet Game, where they adopt and raise a virtual pet called a Doter. When your child finishes a Quest, they tap it done in the game. You get a notification, check the work, and approve it or send it back with a note. Approved Quests pay coins that your child spends to feed, bathe, and level up the Doter.
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Focus Friend, by Hank Green
Focus Friend is best suited for children, teens, and adults — roughly ages 9 and up — who struggle to put their phones down during work or study sessions. It is particularly well-matched to individuals with ADHD who respond well to immediate, concrete rewards and who find traditional timers cold and abstract. The app is not a therapeutic tool, does not include mental health features, and should not be positioned as a clinical intervention; its value is specifically as a habit-formation and focus-support aid for people whose phone itself is their primary distraction. For younger children (under 9) or those with more significant executive function challenges, adult scaffolding to set the timer and explain the mechanic at the outset will improve uptake considerably.
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Finch: Self-Care Pet
Finch is a self-care app built around a virtual pet bird, developed by Finch Care Public Benefit Corporation — a corporate structure that signals the company’s stated commitment to social impact over pure profit maximization. The app’s central premise is disarmingly simple: users take care of their Finch bird by taking care of themselves. Daily check-ins, completed self-care goals, and mindful exercises earn the bird energy to go on adventures; at the end of each day, the bird returns with a small story to share. The mechanic is not incidental to the app’s effect — it is the engine of it.
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Mood Tools
Mood Tools, developed by MOOD, LLC, is a free mental health app for tweens and teens ages 9–17, offering 50+ evidence-based coping tools drawn from CBT, DBT, and ACT. Built for immediacy rather than scheduled sessions, it lets a child in the middle of a meltdown or a surge of anxiety find a useful tool within seconds.
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Habio
Habio is a habit tracker that focuses on the user’s approach to creating and keeping habits rather than just tracking them. When the user opens up the app, they begin by choosing one habit they would like to begin. Users can choose from pre-set options or create their own custom habit. They will then be asked to choose how often they want to track this habit and how many times within those days they would like to do it.
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Clearful
Clearful is a writing and mindfulness app that focuses on journaling in a consistent way to plan, reflect, and practice self-care. The user opens the app each day and receives a writing prompt that they can complete. The user builds up a streak for every day where they open the app and complete the daily prompt.
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Insight Timer
Insight Timer is a meditation and mindfulness app that aims to help individuals sleep better, manage their anxiety, and achieve calm. When the user initially opens the app, they are asked a series of questions, including what they want to get out of their experience with the app. They are then asked to what degree they would like to receive information of a spiritual, scientific, or secular nature. These options can be turned on and off to encourage or avoid certain content within the app.
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Crayola Create and Play
Crayola Create and Play is an app for children who want to make art on the go! After opening the app, the user can choose from several different art projects, including painting, coloring book pages, pixel art, and pet decoration. The app features several different Crayola products for users to create their masterpieces, such as colored pencils, crayons, glitter, paint, and stamps. The work created by the user is displayed in a “museum” where the crayon characters in the app can visit.
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GoNoodle
Go Noodle is an app/website that hosts a wide variety of videos and activities aimed at children ages four through ten. The videos aim to help children build up their flexibility and self-awareness skills while also getting them to combine screen time with fun physical activities like dancing. For users of the website version of Go Noodle, downloadable and printable activities can be used to follow up with activities. Vamos, a video channel, provides some of the site’s activities for a Spanish-speaking audience.
