In today’s blog we’re excited to talk you through your child’s experience when using the Stix remotes whilst simultaneously diving into what’s happening inside the technology behind it.
Designed as two handheld devices, the Stix Remotes guide children through screen-free mindfulness exercises. Seamlessly connected, they produce audio, lights and vibrations to bring mindfulness activities to life, making mindfulness tangible and enjoyable for young minds.
Using Stix remotes: A step-by-step guide to screen-free mindfulness
1. When your children pick up the Stix remotes, they’ll immediately notice the soft touch of the silicone sleeve, available in blue or purple. This tactile feature enhances the device’s tangibility, fostering a connection between the child and the remotes, encouraging greater focus on the activities.
2. Your child then has two options; to launch an activity from the app, or to launch a screen-free activity with the push of a button.
a. Launching from the app; your child can easily select their favourite activity, or the activity that they have identified as the most beneficial for how they are feeling. After pressing play, they have the option to rate their current mood, on a scale, helping them to identify their current feelings and track their moods over time. The app will then connect to the Stix and launch the activity.
b. Screen-free play; An activity from 12 options will be launched and your child’s mindfulness exercise will begin. The LED lights installed into the remotes will turn green and the remotes will use a haptic motor to vibrate, signalling the beginning of the activity. These features will continue to support your child’s mindfulness journey throughout each activity.
3. Let’s imagine that your child chooses ‘Balloon arms’, from the mindfulness of Breath category. The mindfulness instructors voice introduces the activity; “Welcome to Balloon Arms” and will continue to guide and encourage your child through it, kicking off with some slow deep breaths. Dual-speakers from the in-sync remotes will project instructions, creating an audio experience to assist and lead. For instance, the instructor will tell your child to “Take a deep breath in, whilst lifting your arms up, imaging you are a ballon that is inflating” followed by “Take a deep breath out, whilst lowering your arms back down, imaging a balloon deflating”.
4. Throughout the activity, sound effects are used to encourage engagement and make activities more interactive. During the balloon arms activity, the noise of a balloon inflating and deflating helps to engage your child and teaches them the concept behind Belly Breathing. Whilst the balloon inflates and deflates, the lights on the remotes pulsate to set the pace of breathing. Each activity last between 3-6 minutes, after which the activity data will be saved on the remotes until you next sync up to the app, ensuring they always get your reward!
5. Next it’s reward time – Continue reading to see how your children are rewarded for their mindfulness practice…
The Stix App: enhancing mindfulness with gamification
To make mindfulness fun and engaging for children, the Stix app offers a gamified experience. Whilst you can choose to stick to the screen-free mode, the app has been designed to work alongside the Stix remotes to enhance children’s experience. Here are some key features of the Stix app that enrich the mindfulness program:
Rewards system - The app motivates your child to maintain consistency in their mindfulness journey with rewards for completing activities, daily hot-streaks, and winning badges after completing challenges. Rewards take the form of XP and Stars for each completed activity. The XP that they earn leads to level progression, whilst the Stars are used as a form of currency to unlock new items for an interactive cute ‘monster’ character.
Mood recording - Before and after each activity, children can rate their mood from five categories as well and write about their feelings if they wish. This feature helps them become more aware of their emotions and recognise the benefits of mindfulness practice.
Share progress with friends - There is the option for you child to add their friends to their app, supporting a collective interest in mindfulness. This feature promotes friendly competition and collective progress, enhancing the social aspect of the mindfulness activities.
Movement Sensors and Feedback
For multiple activities in our mindfulness programme, an accelerometer inside each Stix remote helps to pick up movement. For instance, in bubble popping, an activity designed for children to address their negative thoughts, the bubbles pop through the user’s movement, which is picked up by the accelerometer. Vibrations from the Stix remotes also add to the interactive and tangible nature of the activities. These vibrations act as a tactical cue during activities, helping guide the children during their mindfulness journey. Also, during some activities different colours are used to narrate the story of the activity.
The Stix Remotes provide a unique experience for children to encourage them to practice mindfulness. A recent customer told us about their experience “Gabi really enjoys using the Stix, in particular the Balloon Breathing activity, which he does several times a week. He's been feeling low recently as he is moving to a specialist school next week, but the Stix have helped to support his mood, and he keeps going back to them. Whenever something really stressful or frustrating happens, he will start taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.”
Watch Gabi playing Balloon Arms below:
By practicing regularly, children like Gabi learn new wellbeing skills that they can take into everyday life, whether or not they have their Stix nearby!
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