New Apps for the New Year: Planning, Focus, and Mental Health Tools for Special Needs Families
by
The BridgingApps Team 
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The start of a new year doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. With the right tools and gentle support, small changes can create calmer days and stronger routines for your child.
A Gentle Start to the New Year
As we enter 2026, let’s take a fresh look at ways to create new habits, whether they are related to getting organized, learning a new skill, planning for upcoming life events or big transition periods for your child, or just tackling whatever surprises life throws your way.
Our Future Focus app list was a big hit last year, so we have refreshed it for 2026! It now includes even more tools for organization and planning as well as apps for keeping our mental health in check as we work to accomplish goals and create new habits for our families.
Keep reading for highlights of some of the newly reviewed apps that can help get your new year on track for achieving whatever goals you have for yourself and your family.
Apps That Help Build Better Routines
TickTick: To-Do List & Calendar is a customizable tool for organizing daily life. Users can create reminders to perform tasks in their journey to forming new habits.
For example, want to make sure you and your family fit an outdoor walk into your evening? Add a new habit by hitting the plus sign, typing in “outdoor walk”, choosing the days and time and when you want to be reminded.
Other helpful scheduling and task tracking apps on the list include Structured- Daily Planner and Tiimo: AI Planner & To-do, as well as time-tested favorite app, Choiceworks Calendar, that serves as a visual scheduling tool for children of all ages and adults with intellectual disabilities or executive functioning needs.
Tools That Reduce Distractions and Improve Focus
As our BridgingApps staff members, many of whom are parents as well as caregivers of extended family members, continuously search to find new ways to keep on-task and stay productive, we have noticed many new apps emerging that seek to help users actively ignore common distractions while working on a focused task.
The recently reviewed app, one sec │screen time + focus, has that goal in mind. When the user first sets up the app, they connect it to specific apps that cause the individual to get off-task (i.e. social media apps like TikTok or YouTube).
The app will then delay the opening of the selected apps by having the user complete a pre-chosen task, like a mindfulness exercise, giving them pause to wonder if they really needed to open that app or if it was just out of boredom or habit of mindlessly scrolling to avoid non-preferred tasks.
This type of app could prove to be helpful not only for those of us in the “sandwich generation”, caring for aging family while raising children with and without disabilities, but also for older teens and young adults as they work to take on adult responsibilities related to work or post-high school education.
Apps That Support Calm and Mental Well-Being
We also acknowledge that there is a time and place to put down the work and task list and just relax.
For apps to help family members of all ages practice mindfulness and take a break we have BetterMe: Mental Health and Happier Meditation for the adults and older children in the family, while Wee Meditate can be a great web-based option for adults to guide children through fun meditations.
These apps all help care for our family’s mental well-being and could easily be a new addition to the family’s self-care routine this year!
Just for Fun: Creative Breaks for Kids
And finally, just because we love sharing fun apps for children (maybe this could even give your children something fun and safe to do while you tackle your to-do list?), check out the newly reviewed app, Drawing Games: Draw & Color.
This app is by the same developer as the popular ABC Kids- Tracing & Phonics app and features the same familiar characters, Lucas and his friends. This cast of characters has been a favorite among many of our young clients and we LOVE that these apps are completely FREE!!
*Item prices are current at the time of writing this article.
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Structured- Daily Planner Free• Offers In-App PurchasesBridgingApps Review Apple App StoreGoogle Play Store |
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Tiimo: AI Planner & To-do Free• Offers In-App PurchasesBridgingApps Review Apple App Store |
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TickTick: To-Do List & Calendar
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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Choiceworks Calendar
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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one sec │screen time + focus
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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BetterMe: Mental Health
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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Happier Meditation
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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Wee Meditate
Free• Offers In-App Purchases
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Drawing Games: Draw & Color
Free
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You don’t have to change everything this year—sometimes the right tool makes everyday life feel more manageable.
Check out BridgingApps App Search Tool to search for apps, create lists and even share them.
About Our Experts
BridgingApps, a program of Easter Seals Greater Houston, is a community of parents, therapists, doctors and teachers who share information about using mobile devices with people who have special needs.
Amy Fuchs is the Program Manager at BridgingApps and a former special education teacher. Amy Barry is the Digital Marketing Lead at BridgingApps and mother of five children.
Cristen Reat is co-founder of BridgingApps and a mother who found success when using a mobile device with her younger son who has multiple disabilities. We share a passion for using mobile technology to enhance the lives of people of all ages with disabilities.
