I saw this in a Home Education group, and signed up only half-hopeful that it would be suitable for us. After a while using it, I have to say that I love it! It’s not the cheapest, but there are some groups around who have group purchases set up which can reduce the price substantially.

GoZen includes several different programmes – check what’s included in your purchase – and we have worked through the Anxiety Relief programme, and are now working through the SEL programme.

The animations may seem a little corny at first glance, but my son really quickly got into them, and wanted to keep watching. The learning is based around an animated story where an alien, Neutrino, comes to Earth to help a teacher and some children to deal with their problems and worries.

The story is told in a very relatable way, with examples that a school-age child will easily understand. As an adult, I’d heard most of the advice before, but this makes it very tangible and easy to understand and act upon so that I feel I’ve learned from the programme too. Each piece of learning has several examples – so for instance, being anxious about studying for a test, or being away from a loved one, or a specific fear such as walking to school and seeing dogs. Cleverly, the most worrying of those – separation from a loved one – is tackled by the example of an adult being worried about leaving his cat at home each day – so avoids being too triggering for children.

The techniques to tackle anxiety are well-explained. My son watched the whole lot through quickly, rather than focusing on the details, but it seems to have helped him already. I think we’ll probably watch these through more than once over the year, as there is a lot of information to take in and practice.

Overall, I would really recommend this for anyone whose children suffer from anxiety, and I think any child would end up learning something from it, even if they don’t have noticeable problems right now.

Link: https://www.gozen.com/