My First Five Years changed how I think about child development

I'll be honest, I write for My First Five Years as a freelancer and have also been an early tester of the app because I have a three-year-old son myself. So, you won’t be surprised to know that I recommend this app to everyone I meet with young children. However, for a while, as a busy working mum, I wondered whether I’d prefer the app to just contain lists of simple-to-set-up activities that I could search for and randomly try when I had a spare ten minutes to play.  

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the science and my son’s stage of development, but more that this is what I’d been used to in the past. I’d have an afternoon at home, spend too long searching the internet for painting activities, get one set up, then find I was the only one left at the table three minutes later, cursing the whole experience! 

But this app is unlike anything else available, and it has genuinely changed how I think about development. Yes, you get a ton of suggested activities you can set up, you’re not left on your own to think up ideas. But more than that, you are given the knowledge and the understanding to create your own play (relevant to where your child is at, this is key, see above painting example). Plus, you end up feeling more confident that it really is daily experiences and plenty of play that boosts their development. 

Rather than start with the activity, this app starts from the child, your child, my child.

It’s a huge breath of fresh air to realise that it’s not all about masses of activities (phew). 

I am feeling more empowered to support opportunities to play that are really effective because I have the know-how as well as the inspiration to get started. And it’s not just an app for creative, time-rich parents, it’s like being given a really simple cheat-sheet that anyone can follow. Imagine being let behind the scenes at a really good nursery that is full of expertise that you never knew existed (or perhaps you did know that the knowledge existed, but you wouldn’t know where to start in trying to gain some for yourself), and you’re on the right track.  

Perhaps it’s easier to explain with an example. Our three-year-old has chicken pox (yes, other illnesses apparently do still exist). In the past I’d be scrambling around looking for ways to entertain him to get through the day while also trying to work and feeling guilty about the whole thing.  

Now there is still some of that, don’t get me wrong, but my first check-in this morning was with the My First Five Years App. I read a few of the suggested articles (one reassured me by describing some myths and facts about learning, so it was a good start). Then I looked at some of what he is currently developing at the moment. Under ‘sensory’ (the app is sorted into ‘streams’ of development, so language, social and emotional skills, et cetera), he is currently developing balance. The suggestion to support this development was to practise stepping between markings on the floor.   

The suggested activity was one for outdoors and so that wasn’t an option. But because I understood what the skill was, and how it could be developed, I was able to think up my own, led by what I thought he would enjoy (because no one knows our children better than we do). We had been playing a game about a shark the night before, so the shark returned, this time in a game using cushions and chairs where he had to get from one end of the room to the other without touching the floor.  

After fifteen minutes of us both playing (he absolutely loved it), he then carried on for another twenty while I snuck my head into the laptop (result). I popped a photo of him enjoying the game into my scrapbook for a nice memory (another ACE feature of the My First Five Years app) and things felt good for us both. I’m not going to lie, there has still been a fair amount of TV employed today and it’s not been stress-free (it’s not a magic app) but I felt like my mindset was more positive.  

And I suppose that is my point. There is a mindset shift which takes place when you gain knowledge. You feel more confident, you start noticing things that you might not have previously (oh, look, he is holding his pencil in that way…) and you start naturally moving with him on this huge learning curve which is so much richer and more colourful than I ever realised. I’m not sure I ever felt so confident in what I was doing development wise with any of my other children. They are, of course, absolutely fine, but it is a lovely feeling to appreciate better and document more of the tiny changes that keep happening well beyond those big milestones we all know about (crawling, walking et cetera). 

So, while I am definitely biased, because I work for My First Five Years, as a parent I do love how this app is turning me from a slightly unsure, albeit enthusiastic, supporter of my son’s development, into a more confident, active and able participant!  

Note from the team at My First Five Years  

We love hearing about how our app is helping parents to understand, enjoy and feel confident about supporting their children’s development.  

Download the app here: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/my-first-five-years