My Life helps kids practice and improve the following skills:

Focus: Blocking out distractions. 

An important component of mindfulness is listening to ourselves and learning to quiet our minds and avoid outside distractions. This type of focus can be very difficult, particularly for people who have been diagnosed with ADHD. A good way to build up this skill is by practicing guided meditation or mindfulness activities. My Life has a wide variety of these types of activities, ranging in length from 1 minute to 9 minutes or more. Users who need to practice their focusing skills can start with the one minute sessions, repeating as often as necessary until they feel comfortable trying to stay focused and block out distractions for longer periods of time. 

Self-Awareness: Understanding our own actions, thoughts and feelings.

When the user starts the daily self-check-in with the My Life app, they are asked to respond to a short series of questions. First, the user checks in physically by clicking on a set list of responses. Next, they check in with how they are feeling mentally by once again choosing a response from a set list of options. And finally, they check in emotionally, choosing an illustrated face that best fits their current state. 

For users who struggle with understanding their emotions, the My Life app can help shed some light on these thoughts and feelings. By providing set options to choose from, they provide the scaffolding needed for the user to think about their emotions and choose the option that best fits them. Users who struggle with this can start by trying to complete the check-in for one whole week and then looking back on what they chose as their emotions and feelings for that particular week. They will then see a pattern and hopefully gain some insight into why they were feeling and acting that particular way.