One common concern of new parents is their baby’s timing around reaching developmental milestones. We all want our babies to be smart and do well in life. For ages, mothers have used playdates and mommy & me groups to compare, discuss, and track their child’s development. And in today’s climate, especially, in addition to quick visits to the pediatrician, parents use social media groups to chat about milestones and evaluate their baby’s developmental skills. Unfortunately, these online groups and playdates offer little to no insight about any individual child. And the comparison game can be the worst thing for a parent’s mental health. Parents need a reminder that each child is different and develops at his or her own pace.
But how are parents to differentiate between a child with a developmental delay that warrants additional support and simply a late bloomer? Thankfully, there is a new app that can help called Tryde.
Track and Encourage Your Baby’s Development with the Tryde App
Tryde is an early childhood developmental assessment app for parents to use to evaluate their baby’s developmental skills at ages newborn through two-and-a-half years old. It was created by a mother-daughter duo, Cheri Bolebruch, Ph.D. and Jordan Bolebruch. Cheri holds a Ph.D. in Education, specializing in Infant Education, Special Education, and Deaf Education. She brings over forty years of expertise, having evaluated thousands of children for educational delays in the areas of motor skills, cognitive skills, language skills, and social skills. Jordan holds a BS in Finance from Boston College and brings extensive marketing and business experience from working at global brands including Citigroup and Facebook. Together, they have created the Tryde app to equip parents with the tools and resources to better understand normal child developmental milestones and how to help children needing some extra intervention and support.
How does it work?
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll see that Tryde offers 17 assessments from newborn to two-and-a-half years old. Each of the assessments asks the parent roughly 10-12 questions about their child. These assessments were designed by experts to help parents understand where their child should be at each age regarding gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills, language skills, and social skills.
More than a typical tracking app.
Tryde goes beyond a typical baby milestone tracking app, offering parents suggestions for toys, games, and ways to engage with their little ones. There is also an option to interact with a child development expert if needed or desired. During each age-specific assessment, the questions are worded such as, “Is baby beginning to clap hands?” Each assessment is age-appropriate and specific to the typical developmental milestones. Parents will have the option to answer Always, Trying, or Not Yet. Based on the answers, the app recommends toys or activities to help a child master developmentally appropriate skills.
Need additional help or advice?
After completing your child’s assessment, you may have additional questions. That’s normal! The thing that we really love about the Tryde app is that their team is available to answer your questions. Throughout each assessment, you have the opportunity to “Ask Tryde,” generating an email to the founders! The questions you ask or information you share is not shared with any other users or third parties. And depending on what type of question you ask, Cheri or Jordan will personally reply to your questions or concerns. They genuinely want to assist in helping children to achieve milestones and parents to recognize delays early on. Early recognition leads to earlier, informed discussions with healthcare providers who can recommend any necessary interventions. And early interventions are the key to helping children succeed!
Share results with your partner and pediatrician.
We love that the Tryde milestone assessments are shareable with your partner, healthcare provider, or child’s caregiver. This way, everyone can be on the same page and agree on the best next steps for your little one.
No need for stress.
The Tryde app wasn’t created to cause panic in parents. It wasn’t designed to create unnecessary worry or convince parents that their child needs therapy. Instead, it was created to help parents get started on the right foot with their babies, answer common questions, and provide reassurance and advice. Tryde’s play-based activity suggestions and age-based toy recommendations help children to develop skills and reach their milestones. And every child can benefit from that. Plus, with Tryde’s expert help, parents can seek early intervention therapies, should their child need it.
Final Thoughts
We all want the best for our children. Thankfully there are some specific steps we parents can do to help our children progress developmentally. Tryde wanted to address the needs of parents searching for a convenient and simple method of assessing and tracking children’s development, so they created this app to offer expert advice and encouragement to millennial parents. It’s a great first step to “keeping track” of your little one. You can download the Tryde app at trydeapp.com.
