Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Karl Samuda watches a performance by Seaview Early Childhood Development Centre students at the launch of the ‘1st 1000 Days’ App, on Tuesday (Nov 19).

The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) has launched its ‘1st 1000 Days’ app, which is an intervention for changing negative parenting behaviours to achieve positive outcomes for children.

Those targeted are biological parents,

adopted parents, caregivers and anyone tasked with the responsibility of

parenting children from birth to two years. The app will provide parents with

the information for caring for children in this age cohort.

The app, which was unveiled at the

Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday (Nov 19), is free of cost and

enables users to know the kind of development that is taking place with their

children, to track development milestones, and be aware of the actions

necessary to support their children’s developmental needs.

As of December 16, persons will be

able to access the app on mobile devices that carry the iOS and Google Play

operating systems.

The 1st 1000 Days app is being

rolled out on a phased basis. In the first phase, the app will cover pregnancy,

infancy and toddlerhood (age zero to two). The second phase will cover the

pre-school years (age three to five) and the third phase will cover primary

years (age six to eight).