Award-winning childcare entrepreneur Jennie Johnson had retired and was taking a well-earned year out after more than 20 years in the childcare sector when she had a lightbulb moment she couldn’t ignore.

A friend sent her a video of her child doing something, which Jennie, who set up and ran award-winning nursery chain Kids Allowed, instantly recognised as a key milestone in the child’s development.

She picked up her phone and called her friend to tell her how amazing this skill was. Her friend, with no background in early years, had had no idea of the significance of this skill, but was comforted to find out about it and understand it.

At that moment, Jennie had the idea that there was a place for an app which helped parents to understand the big meaning behind the tiny moments in the child’s development – moments that can go completely unnoticed by someone without a background in child development or early years training.

Jennie checked to see which apps were on offer but wasn’t impressed by what she found.

“When I was looking at what was available, I wasn’t overly enamoured by what I was seeing,” she said.

“I found that ‘ages and stages’ was very prevalent in all apps, meaning the apps were saying children should be reaching certain milestones at certain proscribed times. When I spoke to parents, they said they were drawn to the apps, but they were driving anxiety because they became worried if their child wasn’t reaching a certain milestone by the app’s age guide.

“So, my co-founder, early years expert Alistair Bryce-Clegg, and I developed a different idea that recognised the little milestones along the way that are often missed while waiting for the ‘bigger ones’.”

Together with co-founder and award-winning author and early years consultant Alistair Bryce-Clegg, they identified six key streams of learning (fine motor, gross motor, social and emotional, cognitive, sensory and language) and broke down the skills that children go through from birth to five.

Alistair says this is an important new focus which can empower parents.

“Parents know about the big milestones like walking and crawling, but they don’t always know about the little things that get children to those milestones, and so they are often rushing to get to the bigger ones,” he stated.

“We want them to marvel in those moments, not just the milestones. If you focus on those moments, you won’t worry that your child isn’t walking at an exact point or age, because you’ll be able to see and understand the skills they have mastered that are essential as they prepare to walk, and you’ll know that walking isn’t far off.

“By giving parents the knowledge to understand their child’s development better, based on the latest science and research, we can help them to feel more confident in that understanding and help them to really enjoy their parenting without the guilt and worry that parents often feel.”

The app contains more than 2600 activities and interactions to support the user’s child at their stage of development, all easy to set up and using everyday items.

Jennie noted user feedback has been positive.

“It’s been wonderful to get such great feedback and know that we can make a positive difference for parents and children, in a world where there is a lot of misinformation about parenting.

“We’ve had parents tell us that it’s given them valuable insight into their child’s development and helped to improve their own confidence, which is exactly what we hoped to do.

“We see the app as a really useful tool for nurseries too, as it can help to improve communication about the children. The better informed a parent is, the easier the discussion between the early years professional and the parent, which hopefully leads to a better outcome for the child.”

For more information about the My First Five Years app, visit www.mffy.com or search for My First Five Years on the App store.