Looking for ways to improve your child's mental health quotient? These six apps can come in handy

As parents, you take utmost care of your child's needs and provide her with the best - from education to nutrition. But, how often do you think about her mental well-being?

According to an article titled, 'Depression: Let's Talk', by the World Health Organization, published in March 2017, India has the highest suicide rate among the ten South-East Asian countries, and the leading cause is depression. Making matters worse, is the fact that about one-fifth of the students in India have reported low levels of parental engagement. A big wake-up call indeed!

Your child can get depressed due to various reasons. Traumatic experiences in early childhood, frequent relocation, negative life events, family history of mental illness and poor finances are a few of the common issues.

Even when your child isn't clinically diagnosed with depression, reasons such as mood swings, problems at school and issues with peers can affect him. As a parent, it is your responsibility to talk to your child, understand his feelings and offer him the comfort and support he needs.

Looking for some guidance? Well, we live in a new-age era of technology, connectivity and smartphones. So, here are six apps that can help improve your child's mental health.

The preteen phase can be very stressful, with a potential teen transition, peer pressure, school routines and schedules playing havoc with your child's mind. This award-winning meditation and mindfulness app can act as your child's mental well-being coach. The app allows your child to first assess how he is feeling. Then, it lets him choose appropriate meditation techniques and widens his thinking to make peace. What's more! This app also creates a log of your child's emotions and helps him assess if he is improving in the way he feels and reacts.

How this app helps your child

This app will help your child to effectively regulate his emotions. With regular practice, your child will learn to be mindful and 'stop, breathe and think' while dealing with a difficult situation. It will make him a more relaxed person while also increasing his self-awareness.

This app is specially designed to help your child understand the triggers that lead to anxiety, anger, stress and depression. It will allow your child to deal with her emotions in a positive manner by changing the way she thinks and behaves. This app teaches your child to use reliable techniques such as breathing and mindfulness strategies to help regulate emotions. It also has a comprehensive diary and habit tracker.

How this app helps your child

Your child will be able to control her emotions once she learns to leverage different coping mechanisms. This app encourages the development of good habits while not shaming the bad ones.

Elevate is a personalised brain training app for children. It is designed to improve focus, speaking ability, memory and more. It acts as a fitness app for your child's mental abilities and aims to boost his confidence. The games included in this app are challenging and hence make the user experience interesting and fun.

How this app helps your child

Schoolwork and monotonous routines can become boring for a young mind. Boredom lowers morale and motivation in a child. This app creates challenging games which helps boost mental stimulation, thereby fostering self-motivation.

Sleep is vital for a child's well-being, especially for teenagers whose days are jam-packed with school work, outings with friends and other activities. This is where the app can help. It aims to regulate an individual's sleep cycle. The app comes with a variety of sounds and melodies that can be added and adjusted to create a mix. Your child can even create a different mix each time she wants to use the app.

How this app helps your child

This app will help your child enjoy deep, sound sleep through personalised mixes of melodies. The volume of sounds and meditation mixes helps to relax and relieve anxiety.

This student planner app is known to be highly effective when it comes to managing classwork, tests and assignments to meet deadlines. As a functional and effective planner, it can make a student's life easier by managing her school schedule.

How this app helps your child

When your child feels overwhelmed with school assignments and deadlines, a tracker is the best way to get things organised. Using this app will help your child keep his day-to-day stress at bay.