Is Fledglings’ Flight an app for children?

No. It is an app for parents and caregivers.

 

What age does the child need to be?

This app is designed to help children from birth to 3 years of age. Children age out of the app at 4 years old when they go pre-school.

 

How does it work?

Once you have purchased the gift membership, you will receive an email with an activation code and a gift card will be mailed to you to give to the recipient or mailed to the recipient directly. Using the QR code or URL, they can enter their activation code to become a member. Once they have created their profile in the app, they will have access to a library of 100-200 play-based exercises that change every month. Each day they can chose which exercises that they want to do with their child. Every exercise is designed to help with their child’s development.  They will also receive a list of upcoming milestones for them to check as they are met. This information will be used through machine learning to create a developmental profile for their child which will indicate if their child is developmentally delayed, on-track, advanced, or asynchronous.

 

Premium Members have access to the daily exercises, milestone tracking, as well as receive a monthly a “toolbox” that is complete with all of the supplies needed to do the exercises, as well as skills-based toys that are tailored their child’s unique developmental profile that will help with developmental lags or keep advanced children challenged. They will receive a monthly questionnaire to provide feedback on their child’s experience with the toys provided.

 

How many exercises are there each month?

There are 100-200 play-based exercises per month. However, the parents are not expected to do all of them.  They can choose which ones that they want to complete each day.

 

How long should the parent expect to spend doing exercises each day?

They can spend as little as 20 minutes or as much as several hours. It depends on their family’s schedule. Completing at least one exercise a day, is better than none at all. Many exercises invite the parent to integrate them into their daily schedule such as saying 21,000 words a day to help with their child’s language development. This takes no time, because they would be doing it throughout their day.

 

Are there exercises that involve the child using a screen on this app?

There are no screen-related activities.  All play-based exercises are screen-free for the child and involve using common household items. Research shows that introducing screen to children under age 2 actually delays the development of fine motor and gross motor skills. There are so many play-based exercises on the app, parents will never feel as though they need to hand their child a screen again to keep them occupied.

 

What kind of exercises are there?

Exercises focus on 6 areas of development:

Gross motor skills - Crawling and walking

Fine motor skills - Agility of arms and hands

Cognitive - Brain development

Social-emotional - Understanding emotions and interacting with others

Communication - Language development

Sensory - Integrating information that comes from the eyes, ears, mouth, touch, as well as the body’s orientation in relation to the ground

 

Who created these exercises?

These exercises are used in pediatric occupational therapy, vision therapy, audiological therapy, sensory-integration therapy, speech therapy and psychological therapy. Early intervention is the key to help to mitigate long term issues with mobility, hearing, vision, information processing, memory, speech, sensory integration, dexterity, emotional development and socialization. Many issues begin in the first several months of life. If certain reflexes do not get turned off. This can affect a child’s ability to write, talk, read, eat, tie shoes, ride a bike, go on a swing among others.

 

Will this app make the child smarter?

This is not the intention behind this app. It is designed to help children to learn to crawl, walk, have sensory experiences, develop the use of their hands, understand their emotions, process information, remember, build confidence, learn to communicate through gestures and speech, as well as be able to learn life skills.

 

The lockdowns from the pandemic have changed the way the babies and children experience their day in ways that older children and adults have taken for granted. This deprivation of sensory inputs have effected children’s development and can have long-term consequences such as depression, cognitive delays, issues with self-esteem, trouble processing sensory information, as well as physical challenges from walking to writing.

Even before the pandemic, 1 in 4 children showed deficits and delays in developmental outcomes such as language, communication, motor skills, and/or social-emotional health by the time that they enter school.

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On what devices can the app be used?

This app can be used on any device regardless if it is a PC or Apple product. It is a web-based app so no one needs to download any software. It can be use it on any computer, tablet or smart phone.

 

What happens when the gift membership expires?

The recipient will be notified a month before it expires. They can choose to continue the membership or allow it to lapse.

 

The has more than one child. Can use the app for both children?

Yes. Each child will have their own account so that their developmental information will be separate. The information that will be provided with the subscription will be different for each child as it will be tailored to their unique developmental profile.

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Basic membership includes all children. You only need one membership for all of the children. However, Premium is only for one child as the toys are tailored to that child's unique developmental profile. For a family with more than one child under 3 years old, purchase 1 Premium membership for each child.