Settle Your Glitter
Settle Your Glitter gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Settle Your Glitter is a beautifully designed tool that helps kids name their feelings, determine how strong their feelings are, and focus on their breathing. Pairing deep breaths with a calming visual, Settle Your Glitter is an easy way to help kids independently regulate their emotions. Younger kids who struggle with hyperactivity or impulsivity might find this tool especially helpful.What kids can learn
The beautiful graphics and smooth animations make it likely that kids will find Settle Your Glitter enticing.
Kids will choose the name of their emotion and its intensity before practicing one method to calm down.
No user guide available, though Settle Your Glitter is intuitive and easy to use. No data is stored about frequency of emotions, which might be helpful for recording patterns.
What's it about?
Kids first select their emotion (mad, sad, silly, or worried) and then the intensity of that emotion (not at all, a little bit, very, extremely) as they begin SETTLE YOUR GLITTER. Then they shake an animated orb of glitter and watch it move around the virtual snow globe. In the bottom right hand corner, an animated puffer fish helps show kids when to inhale or exhale to facilitate mindful breathing. Based on the severity of emotion, the glitter will settle to whichever side the iPad is leaning for a certain amount of time. To finish, the puffer fish will ask kids, "Are you finished?" and kids can decide if they need to keep using Settle Your Glitter until they feel calm enough to return to regular activity.
Is it any good?
Settle Your Glitter is simple to use, beautiful to watch, and accessible to most. It takes the concept of a calm-down jar used to help kids regulate their emotions and makes it virtual. Giving kids a visual representation of particles settling in addition to naming how their feeling empowers kids to calm themselves down. Practicing deep breathing, if done consistently in response to intense feelings, can transfer away from the app and become a habit. One helpful addition would be the option for sound: Some kids will need the rationale in "How to Play" read to them, and some might benefit from calming music, especially if the environment around them is noisy. Also, extension activities to help kids apply what they learn from using the app would deepen its impact.
Families can talk about...
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Families can use Settle Your Glitter to talk about what makes kids mad, sad, silly, or worried. Parents might give kids examples of what makes them upset and talk about the difference between feeling a little bit mad an extremely mad. Talk to kids about how high emotions make it difficult to solve problems or communicate well.
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As kids begin to name and label their emotions independently, challenge them to take on others' perspective in the same situation. For example, if a friend falls down on the playground, how do you react? How might they react? Are they the same or different?
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Work with your kids to transfer the deep breathing skills outside of the app so kids can use them even when they don't have a device handy.
App details
| Devices: | iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android |
| Price: | Free |
| Pricing structure: | Free |
| Release date: | April 1, 2015 |
| Category: | Education |
| Size: | 12.20 MB |
| Publisher: | Momentous Institute |
| Version: | 2.2 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 8.0 or later |
