Common Sense Media Review
By Christy Matte
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Content-rich meditations offer something for everyone.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 5+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Smiling Mind
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
SMILING MIND is a collection of hundreds of meditations for a wide variety of ages and situations. There are grounding body scans, breathing meditations, and sensory exercises such as listening to music or tasting foods. There are complete programs for kids in different age groups, a workplace program, and a sport program. Users can enjoy short meditations or longer versions with less guidance. Smiling Mind also has a six-year "Mindfulness Curriculum" for educators to use with their students with complementary student versions. Users can mark their favorite meditations and track their meditation practice on a dashboard. You can also download meditations for offline use. Before and after each meditation, Smiling Mind asks users to rate their state of mind in three areas -- Happy, Content, and Alert -- but you can skip it.
Is It Any Good?
As meditation becomes a more popular tool in dealing with stress and anxiety in school and at home, this is a great free collection for families who want some help getting started. Smiling Mind offers quality programs that lead kids and adults through a series of meditations. The content for younger kids is age-appropriate and uses terms and images kids will connect with. Tweens and teens will be engaged by things like music and food, as well as real-life situations most kids that age can relate to. Users can experience a meditation each day or just as needed. There are some sponsored programs, but they never feel heavy-handed. In addition to great content, Smiling Mind also has useful tools including a favorites option and a dashboard to track progress. With fantastic content and a nice variety of meditations, Smiling Mind rises above many others in this space. And you can't beat the price!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about meditation and using apps like Smiling Mind. What is it for? When would you use it?
Families can talk about learning with apps. Do you think this is a good app for learning? Why, or why not? What can you learn?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Skills : Self-Direction : motivation , self-assessment , self-reflection , Communication : listening , Health & Fitness : body awareness , meditation , mental health
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : April 29, 2018
- Genre : Health & Fitness
- Publisher : Smiling Mind
- Version : 3.2.2
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 8.0 or later; Android 4.1 and up
- Last updated : June 19, 2019
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