Cove (Music Journal)

LQ: 8.8

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Brain grade: 9.5
Fun score: 8

Platform/Console: , LWK Recommended Age: 8+ Thinking Skills Used: ,

Cove is a new way to journal that de-emphasizes verbal expression and allows users to capture their moods and emotions through the creation of instrumental music. As the name implies, Cove’s design conveys the feeling of wading in a safe and sheltered body of water. Users are given a few basic ambient sound backgrounds to choose from with labels like “playful,” “gentle,” and “cloudy.” From there, a song is built in layers by dropping “stones” in different places to create simple beats and melodies as the water current flows past them. Finally, a filter is chosen that determines the overall feel of the song, a “surface” to the “water” that can be calm or turbulent. Though Cove was developed as a positive psychology/mental health app for adolescents and teens, its pure and simple interface makes it appropriate for kids as young as 8. Parents should be aware that the app does have sharing capabilities and allows users to write descriptions and messages, so guidance is strongly encouraged.

Get it now: Humane Engineering website | iTunes App Store


THIS APP IS GOOD FOR KIDS WHO NEED HELP WITH:

Organization

Cove is a beautifully simple way to illustrate and practice the organization thinking skill. Styled after water formations in nature, Cove has users build songs in layers, from the bottom up. Each layer visually represents a layer of the water and adds a different dimension to the song, from ambient noise to beat to melody. This is a good exercise in breaking a task down into smaller steps and ordering those steps, and the visual metaphor of water helps reinforce the concept.

Self-Awareness

Because the purpose of Cove is for emotional expression through music, it's a good tool for initiating conversations about what we feel and why. Emotional intelligence is an important aspect of self-awareness, and it helps us self-regulate as well as empathize with others. Finding the music that fits one's mood and seeing a label like “longing" or “struggling" can help a child build an emotional vocabulary for these feelings, helping them to understand as well as to be understood.

See our tabs for ADHD, Anxiety, and Autism to see how Cove can be used to work with your child on important skills.

 

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