Emotional ABCs
Product by Emotional ABC's
Facts checked: Not yet checked
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating). This label applies to learning-science judgments throughout this overview.
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating)
While Emotional ABCs has not yet been formally evaluated by The Learning Standard, its curriculum relies heavily on direct instruction and game-based competency tracking to teach basic social-emotional skills. It introduces emotional vocabulary well, but young children may struggle to transfer these screen-based skills to real-world peer interactions without active adult facilitation and spaced real-life practice.
Pros
- Introduces emotional vocabulary through explicit direct instruction and clearly modeled examples.
- Breaks down complex social-emotional concepts into foundational, easily digestible steps for young learners.
- Uses interactive scenarios to provide immediate formative feedback on basic emotion recognition tasks.
Cons
- Lacks mechanisms to ensure children can transfer screen-based emotional regulation skills to real-world situations.
- Relies heavily on adult facilitation to reinforce the material through spaced retrieval practice off-screen.
- Game-based elements can sometimes distract from the core learning objectives rather than reinforcing them.
What Do We Know About Emotional ABCs?
Emotional ABCs is an effective tool for introducing basic emotional vocabulary, but it requires active parent involvement to translate those digital lessons into real-world behavioral changes. Your child will interact with animated characters and structured games designed to teach them how to identify feelings and make positive choices. The app relies on direct instruction, explicitly showing children what emotions look like and how to react to them. However, learning science shows that social-emotional skills require situated learning, meaning children must practice these skills in the messy, unpredictable context of real life. A screen cannot replicate the cognitive load of an actual playground dispute. You should use this program as a foundational text rather than a complete behavioral solution. When your child learns a new emotional regulation technique in the app, prompt them to use it during minor daily frustrations to build retrieval strength. The Learning Standard has not yet formally rated this app, but our preliminary analysis suggests it functions best as a springboard for offline conversations. Without your active mediation and spaced repetition of the concepts during actual emotional moments, the skills your child acquires in the app are likely to remain siloed on the screen.
How Does Emotional ABCs Work?
Emotional ABCs uses a blended, competency-based learning approach that combines direct video instruction with interactive game-based assessments. The program moves students through a strictly sequenced curriculum designed to build foundational social-emotional skills. First, the app explicitly models a specific emotion or regulation strategy through short, animated video clips. These serve as worked examples, demonstrating the target behavior in a controlled narrative environment. Next, your child is prompted to practice identifying or applying that concept in a structured digital activity, such as matching facial expressions to vocabulary words. The system requires mastery of these basic identification tasks before unlocking more complex scenarios about making choices. This ensures your child has the prerequisite emotional vocabulary before being asked to solve hypothetical social conflicts. The app provides immediate feedback during these interactive segments, correcting wrong answers and reinforcing correct ones. Because the progression is personalized and mastery-based, children cannot simply skip ahead to the games; they must demonstrate comprehension of the direct instruction material first.
Strengths and tradeoffs of Emotional ABCs
The biggest strength of Emotional ABCs is its systematic breakdown of complex emotional concepts into explicitly modeled worked examples, while its biggest weakness is the inherent difficulty of transferring digital social-emotional learning into physical real-world behavior. Clear Direct Instruction: The app excels at foundational knowledge acquisition. By explicitly naming emotions and demonstrating them through animated scenarios, it reduces the cognitive load required for young children to process complex internal states. Your child benefits from clear, unambiguous representations of feelings like frustration or sadness. Immediate Formative Feedback: During the interactive quizzes, the app corrects misconceptions instantly, ensuring that your child does not encode incorrect emotional vocabulary. The Transfer Gap: The primary limitation is rooted in the boundaries of digital learning. Social-emotional regulation requires real-time physiological and cognitive management. Identifying a character's anger on a screen requires far less cognitive effort than managing one's own anger during a real-life conflict. Need for Spaced Retrieval: To make the app's lessons stick, educators and parents must facilitate spaced retrieval practice in the real world. Without adults prompting children to recall and apply the app's strategies days or weeks later, the learning remains context-bound to the device.
Who Might Benefit From Emotional ABCs?
Emotional ABCs is best for early elementary students (grades K-3) who need explicit, foundational instruction in emotional vocabulary and self-regulation techniques alongside active adult guidance. The program is specifically designed for young learners in prekindergarten through third grade who struggle to articulate their feelings or identify emotions in others. It serves as an excellent supplemental tool for teachers and school counselors looking to standardize social-emotional language across a classroom. For parents, it is most effective when used as a shared activity, providing a common vocabulary that the family can utilize to navigate tantrums, peer conflicts, and daily stressors.
Data Transparency
Does Not Meet Data Transparency Standard
Emotional ABCs reaches Level 1 of 3 (Basic protections), below our data transparency standard. Reaching Level 2 needs the policy to document a data retention timeline and self-service deletion.
22 of 35 checks passed
Evaluated September 2026
Privacy Policy for EmotionalABCs.com →Level 1 · Basic protections
Does not sell data or target ads at students, limits sharing, and lets parents see and delete their child's data.
Level 2 · Parent control (meets the standard)
Families can get their data out, know who processes it, and know how long it is kept.
Not documented: a data retention timeline, self-service deletion
Level 3 · Direct data access
Families or schools can pull their own data through an API, in a stated format.
Not documented: an API for retrieving their own data, a named export format
View all 35 checks
Parent Access7/8
Does the policy mention parents specifically?
“Parents may request to review or delete any information submitted by his or her child by sending an email to Company's webmaster at "Privacy@EmotionalABCs.com"”
Can parents view their child's data?
“Parents may request to review or delete any information submitted by his or her child by sending an email to Company's webmaster at "Privacy@EmotionalABCs.com"”
Can parents modify their child's data?
“Users or Parents of Users may request to review, correct or delete any information submitted by User or User's child by sending an email to Company webmaster at: "Privacy@EmotionalABCs.com"”
Can parents delete their child's account?
“Parents may request to review or delete any information submitted by his or her child by sending an email to Company's webmaster at "Privacy@EmotionalABCs.com"”
Is there a dedicated Children's Privacy section?
The policy covers children's data inside its Cross-Border Data Transfers and Purposes sections and has no section headed for children's privacy or COPPA.
Does it reference COPPA compliance?
“Company adheres to the federal privacy protection standards in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)”
Does it reference FERPA compliance?
“Company and the local or regional board of education shall ensure compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, 20 USC §1232g, as amended from time to time.”
Is parental consent required for child accounts?
“Company does not permit children under the age of 13 to create an account and does not knowingly collect personally identifying information from children under the age of 13 without the consent and at the direction of a parent.”
Data Portability3/5
Can users access their personal data?
“Company offers Users simple methods of accessing, correcting, or deleting the User Personal Information collected by Company.”
Can users download/export their data?
“Right to data portability. [CC § 1798.100] Users may be entitled to receive a copy of User electronic Personal Information in a readily usable format.”
Is there a self-service data access tool?
“Users to the website select a password to access the Materials and Content and other features of the website and allow Users to review and change the information Company collects about them or their child.”
Is a specific data format mentioned for export?
The policy says only "readily usable format" and names no specific export format.
Is there an API for data access?
The policy does not mention any API for data access.
Data Minimization3/6
Is data collection itemized?
“Company collects and stores the following data: On Paid Family or Individual accounts: parent emails and passwords, all credit card related payment data, child username and picture password. On Free Parent accounts: parent emails and passwords, child username and picture password.”
Can the app be used without a real name?
The policy says a child's first name or nickname is collected, school rosters are added, and users may give a full name in their profile.
Can the app be used without an email?
“On Individual or Family accounts, the parent uses the parent's own email, password and credit card information. Parents and children together create a username of their own choice and choose a picture password. Child Users require the parent's email and parent's password to begin using the service.”
Does it state collection is limited to what is necessary?
“Company collects only the minimum amount of Personal Information necessary for Company's purposes unless Users choose to provide more.”
Is IP address anonymized or truncated?
The policy says it keeps logs of IP addresses and does not mention anonymizing or truncating them.
Is location tracking explicitly excluded?
The policy does not explicitly rule out location tracking.
Third-Party Protection6/7
Does it explicitly state no selling of data?
“Company will never monetize User Personal Information by providing it to a third party in exchange for money.”
Are third-party providers named?
“Company shares with third-party payment services (such as PayPal and its subsidiary companies) Users personal information related to credit card payments”
Are providers contractually restricted?
“Subject to confidentiality agreements, the terms of this Privacy Policy and applicable law, Personal Information may be disclosed to service providers and advisors to support the website's technical operation or to execute a specific program. Any third parties with whom Personal Information is shared shall be bound by this Privacy Policy.”
No-targeted-advertising commitment?
“Not use or disclose student information collected through an educational/school service (whether Personal Information or otherwise) for behavioral targeting of advertisements to students.”
Is AI/ML data sharing addressed?
The policy does not address AI or machine learning.
Child-specific sharing restriction?
“Not collect, maintain, use or share student Personal Information beyond that needed for authorized educational/school purposes, or as authorized by the parent/student.”
Cookies/tracking limited or opt-out?
“Company does not permit third parties other than Company's analytics and service providers to track Users' activities on the site. Company does not track Users' online browsing activities on other online sites or services. Company does not disclose cookie data to any third party.”
Deletion & Retention2/5
Can users delete their account?
“Right to deletion. [CC § 1798.105] Users may be entitled to request that Company delete the Personal Information that Company has collected from User.”
Self-service deletion mechanism?
The policy lets users delete only optional profile fields themselves; deleting an account or all data requires an email or written request.
Specific data retention timeline?
The policy says student data is deleted when the contract ends or is no longer needed, but gives no specific retention period.
Auto-deletion of inactive accounts?
The policy does not address automatic deletion of inactive accounts.
Post-deletion handling described?
“Please note that information may remain in backup or archive records, and Company may retain certain data relevant to preventing fraud or future abuse or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally-identifiable or de-identified data, account recovery, or if required by law.”
Advertising1/4
Advertising model explicitly disclosed?
The policy mentions "advertising partners" but never states whether the product shows ads.
Free from third-party advertisements?
The policy does not say the product is free of third-party ads.
Children excluded from ad targeting?
“Not use or disclose student information collected through an educational/school service (whether Personal Information or otherwise) for behavioral targeting of advertisements to students.”
Ad-free option available?
The policy does not say the product is ad-free or offer an ad-free option.
What This Means
The policy review did not meet our data transparency standard. The checks above show the documented findings and unknowns. A missing statement does not establish how the app handles data in practice.
About this evaluation: Based on automated analysis of Privacy Policy for EmotionalABCs.com against 35 policy-disclosure questions, including questions adapted from the Common Sense Privacy Program's published evaluation questions. TLS is not affiliated with Common Sense Media, and this is not a Common Sense rating. Quoted text is copied from the policy; unquoted notes are our summary. Results describe what the policy documents, not the company's actual practices. Privacy policies can change: this review reflects the version we analyzed and does not determine legal compliance.
Sources and review method
TLS combines product information and editorial analysis to explain how Emotional ABCs works, its tradeoffs, and the questions to ask before choosing it. Product features, an instructional rationale and evidence of learning outcomes are different kinds of information.
Formal Learning Standard assessment: not yet completed. Data Transparency findings are reported separately and do not establish learning effectiveness. Read our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Emotional ABCs
Is Emotional ABCs free?
Yes, Emotional ABCs is completely free for full-time teachers and school counselors employed at brick-and-mortar public and private schools. However, parents and premium school accounts must pay for access to the platform. The paid parent version offers the exact same core curriculum but is optimized for at-home use. You will need to evaluate whether the convenience of home access justifies the subscription cost for your family.
Is Emotional ABCs good for young children?
Yes, Emotional ABCs is highly appropriate for young children in prekindergarten through third grade. The curriculum is specifically designed around early childhood cognitive development milestones, using simple animated characters and clear direct instruction to introduce complex internal feelings without overwhelming the child. The interface is intuitive enough for pre-readers to navigate independently, though the learning outcomes are far stronger when an adult actively guides the session.
What does Emotional ABCs teach?
Emotional ABCs teaches foundational Social Emotional Learning skills. Your child will learn crucial emotional vocabulary, how to identify the physical physiological cues of different emotions in their own bodies, and basic self-regulation strategies. The curriculum focuses heavily on giving children the cognitive tools to pause, reflect, and make deliberate behavioral choices when experiencing strong feelings, rather than reacting impulsively to their immediate environment.
How does Emotional ABCs compare to traditional classroom SEL programs?
Emotional ABCs digitizes direct instruction and immediate feedback, whereas traditional classroom programs rely entirely on the teacher to deliver content. While the app guarantees a consistent, standardized delivery of foundational emotional vocabulary, traditional programs often provide far better opportunities for situated learning. Live, teacher-led programs allow for real-time peer-to-peer practice and immediate adult intervention during actual conflicts, which are critical components for achieving true emotional mastery.
Has The Learning Standard evaluated Emotional ABCs?
TLS has not yet completed a Learning Standard evaluation of how well Emotional ABCs teaches. Its privacy policy has been reviewed for Data Transparency and reaches Level 1, Basic protections.
Is Emotional ABCs COPPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references COPPA. A policy reference alone does not establish COPPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy says it follows COPPA.
Is Emotional ABCs FERPA compliant?
The reviewed privacy policy references FERPA. A policy reference alone does not establish FERPA compliance. Policy review note: The policy commits to FERPA compliance.
Does Emotional ABCs have a children's privacy policy?
No dedicated children's privacy section was found in the reviewed policy. Policy review note: The policy covers children's data inside its Cross-Border Data Transfers and Purposes sections and has no section headed for children's privacy or COPPA.
Does Emotional ABCs sell student data?
The reviewed policy states that the app does not sell data. This is a policy statement; actual data practices were not verified. Policy review note: The company says it will not sell user personal information.
Can you delete your data from Emotional ABCs?
The reviewed privacy policy describes account deletion. We have not tested the deletion process. Policy review note: Users can ask to have their personal information deleted.
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- Pricing
- Free to educators and school counselors employed full time by brick and mortar public and private schools. Paid Parent and Premium Schools versions offered.
- Platforms
- Web Browser
- Grade Levels
- Prekindergarten, Transitional Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
- Website
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