The latest developments in technology are being harnessed to rebuild the trust that had broken down between parents and childcare professionals following the RTÉ Prime Time: Breaches of Trust programme in 2013. Now, parents can stay connected to their children during the day through new software apps developed in Ireland.
Parents can see what their children eat for lunch and how long they sleep, and view special milestone moments through posts and photos updated in real time. Childcare staff can devote hours previously spent on endless paperwork to doing the job they trained for. And, unlike CCTV systems, there are no issues with data protection.
In the wake of the Prime Time controversy Kieran Walkin, who has two young daughters in a creche, began to think about a solution to help childcare facilities and parents monitor a child's progress during the day while also cutting down on paperwork.
His idea was simple. What if they could put all the information about their child’s day on to a tablet and share it with parents? He set about developing an app that would do all this as well as helping creches make the transition from paper record-keeping to digital, with a secure, encrypted service that would also keep creche inspectors happy.
Walkin developed his idea along with his three co-founders, Julian Hickson, Mark Casey and Maria Demery. Their first cloud- based product was developed by the end of 2013 and last year the Crechecom service was rolled out to creches around the country.
Now called Little Vista, the software, which parents can access free at any time of the day on smartphone, tablet or PC, is changing the way child daycare centres interact with parents.
Hickson explains: “Mums and dads love being able to get a detailed and visual snapshot of what their children are doing. They can see pictures of the children at play, whether they are painting, reading or even taking one of their first steps, all of which can be saved and stored as precious memories.
“They get updates about food intake, allergies, medicine given, temperatures, any sickness and other relevant markers.”
The app also records and details the child’s learning journal for the new curriculum including Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education, and Aistear.
Learning journey
Michelle Nolan is a former creche owner and mother of three who is passionate about early learning. Last year she launched Mijourni, an app that improves learning outcomes for young children and has since merged with ChildDiary.net. ChildDiary is an online platform for carers and educators – including creches and childminders – to involve parents, grandparents and specialists in a child’s learning journey.
The app runs on all tablets, PCs and laptops and is free for parents. Carers can log daily records such as what the children ate and played, and whether they slept. They use voice dictation for observations and can create learning stories with photos that are linked into the national curriculum. Parents can also add their own special moments to their child’s profile through photos and captions.
“When I was running my own creche I saw a definite need to communicate with parents, some of whom never set foot inside the facility.
“I really felt for parents who had no insight into what their children did all day and I felt there was a lack of understanding of what early-years professionals do within those four walls in facilitating, supporting and creating lifelong learning at a very important time in their lives.”
Like many other centres, Nolan turned to Facebook to start sharing with parents but said it “went against the grain with her”, as it was not private and the parents did not own it.
“Our platform is designed to be so simple, just like Facebook, but the big difference is that it is private and the data is not shared on social media.”
Check the app, Daddy
When Ciaran Flynn asks his four-year-old daughter, Kate, what she did in creche, she says: “Check the app, Daddy.”
The app in question, ChildPaths, is one he developed when he noticed Kate had really started to come on when she moved to a new creche in 2012 where the communication with parents was much better than in her old facility. He realised there was a need for a tool or service to allow childcare providers to engage with parents faster and more efficiently.
He developed ChildPaths, software that allows parents to create a digital footprint through their child’s educational career from toddler through to teenager. Again the product is HSE-compliant and adheres to many of the principles and standards set out by Síolta and Aistear.
Parents receive real-time instant updates as they happen throughout the day from their childcare provider through their smartphone, tablet or PC. They can send an alert to the childcare facility about medicines, allergies, likes and fears.
“It’s like a virtual memory box that you can add to for many years to come and give to your child as a gift when they are older. The idea is to try to get parents more involved and to understand more about what’s going on in their child’s daily life.
“Employees log activities for each child such as sleeping, feeding or playtime via a tablet, which simplifies a labour-intensive and frustrating reporting process and allows for greater accuracy as everything is logged in real time,” Flynn says.
Checking in
Eimear Magner loves being able to check in on her two-year-old, Stella, during her day at Bumble Bees creche in Sutton Park.
“I used to get a written form at the end of the day, which didn’t mean anything to me. Now when I think of Stella, or have a quiet moment during the day, I can check on her through the Little Vista app on my smartphone.
“I start work early in the morning and my partner takes Stella to school, so it’s great to feel more connected to her. I love seeing her having fun doing a new activity; it puts a smile on my face.”
Nathalie Roberts, owner of Star Tots creche and Montessori in Stillorgan, says she
feels as if a weight has been lifted off her since she introduced the Little Vista system to her facility.
“The paperwork in this industry is becoming completely overwhelming for owners and staff, so when I heard there was an app that could do it for us, it was so refreshing. Since all the misery was put over the creches two years ago, we felt there was a distrust among parents and we were under a lot more pressure.
“The parents love the app: they rave about it and love showing all the photos to the grandparents at weekends. They feel more connected with us and their children and more secure because they can see how happy their children are. The bond that had been lost with the parents is being built back up.”
