Not What I Expected: Help and Hope for Parents of Atypical Children by Dr. Rita Eichenstein: Not What I Expected is “designed to help parents of atypical children understand what they are feeling and learn how to manage their emotions. It serves as both an inspiring guide and a practical parenting toolbox as Dr. Eichenstein gently walks parents step by step through the inner and outer challenges of their ‘atypical’ parenting journey.”
What To Do When You Worry Too Much by Dr. Dawn Heubner: This is an interactive book intended for 6–12-year-olds to help guide them (and their parents) through cognitive-behavioral techniques used to treat anxiety. By incorporating humor, metaphor, and illustrations, the book is easy to understand and empowering for children.
Helping Your Anxious Child by Ronald Rapee, Ann Wignall, Susan Spence, Heidi Lyneham and Vanessa Cobham: Grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this book provides tools to help you parent with compassion and help your child work through anxiety, fears, and worries.
Mindfulness for Kids Who Worry by Kate Austin: Aimed at ages 6–9, but with tools that can be useful at any age, this book is full of beautiful illustrations and mindfulness exercises for children.
Cool Mom Picks: Interview with Dr. Ken Ginsburg, pediatrician and adolescent expert: This podcast has helpful advice on how to talk to our kids with compassion, and the accompanying website has a lot of helpful links.
Psychology Today: Parenting with Resilience in Unsettling Times: Dr. Dan Peters discusses how parents can be resilient so they are able to problem-solve.
Kara Hume, Ph.D.: Supporting Individuals with Autism through Uncertain Times: A really well-structured PDF with helpful information and great infographics broken into seven strategies to help those with autism through uncertain times.
Do Yoga With Me: Online guided yoga instruction offering two months of classes for free.
CorePower Yoga: CorePower’s online library of classes is publicly available, and they have plenty of workouts on YouTube too.
Anxiety Reducing Music: Six hours of free music created to reduce anxiety from NPR.
Super Stretch Yoga: This app teaches kids twelve different animal-inspired yoga poses via an animated superhero named Super Stretch. Kids can watch videos of children doing each pose and an explanation of how to do it; they can also choose a particular pose or do them in order. Reminders to breathe are given throughout.
Calm: Calm contains hundreds of excellent guided meditations in varying lengths, with an entire section devoted to children. The app also offers music and bedtime stories.
Headspace: Like Calm, Headspace contains guided meditations and music in varying lengths for the whole family. The kids’ section features five themes: Calm, Focus, Kindness, Sleep, and Wake Up.
Insight Timer: This app contains 32,000 free guided meditations, and their section for kids includes topics on finding peace, falling asleep, “overcoming monkey mind,” and calming anxiety.
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame: This app is intended for young children to help them learn self-control, problem-solving, and task persistence. To help an upset Sesame Street monster learn to calm down, children practice different techniques such as breathing exercises, popping bubbles, and making a plan.
The Breathing Butterfly: This app contains six beautifully designed “games” that help promote relaxation and calm: “Grow a garden and spot a hummingbird. Visit a cherry-blossom snow-globe. Guide a butterfly to sip blossom nectar and reach a rainbow. Make music. And yes, catch a falling star!”
Mindful Powers: This app introduces children to mindfulness through a series of voice-guided stories with the help of a playful monster named Flibbertigibbet. Flibbertigibbet is agitated and needs help calming down; by soothing him, the child is led to learn techniques to help them gain inner calm.
