Children create new app for students to help regulate mental health
Marina Garcia
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Most families bond over board games or perhaps a day at the park, but a Colorado Springs family has taken an interest in software coding.
Now, a lot of apps are made for children, but not many are made by children.
This app, Fight or Delight, checks both those boxes, and the Rushing family says it helps students reflect on their emotions through language analysis.
Created for students, it works as a journal in which kids can submit entries describing their day. The app will then respond with whether the day was a flight, meaning a bad day. Or a delight, meaning it was a good day.
Bonnie Rushing tells us her daughter, who is six years old, can’t wait to use the app at the end of her day.
She says it allows young students to express themselves, with another important element—increased family communication.
“You can look at trends, okay. She’s had three pretty rough days in a row. What does that mean? How can we help her? Why is it rough? And you can go back and see her entries,” says app creator and mother, Bonnie Rushing.
The family tells us they intend to keep developing the app. For example, they’d like to add time stamps to the entries and make versions for older students, too.
However, the family has a very important message for everyone: you shouldn’t always trust what A.I. tells you, and humans should always double-check their work.
Fight or Delight is not available in app stores yet, but Rushing tells us it is a work in progress.
If you are interested in trying the app, you can do so here.