Deakin University researchers are trialling a new app to help parents foster their children’s wellbeing

Stressed mums and dads can seek on-the-spot parenting advice to help navigate challenging moments, like food refusal and meltdowns. Find out how.

Tiffany Roussety has four-year-old twin boys – Ari and Sully – and is part of Deakin University’s parent app trail. Picture: Alison Wynd

Stressed mums and dads can seek on-the-spot parenting advice to help navigate challenging moments, like food refusal and meltdowns.

A new app, called Daily Growth, has been created by Deakin University reasearchers in a bid to help parents support their children to regulate emotions.

The app, called Daily Growth, asks parents questions about their children twice-daily, and then provides tailored evidence-based advice to help them navigate challenging situations.

Mother of three Tiffany Roussety is using the app to navigate those moments by getting quick advice from its library of videos.

“If I’m having issues with them eating their food or bedtime or siblings, which is the main thing we’re hitting at the moment, I can watch different videos and there’s different topics and there’s a quick and easy to get tips on how we can react differently,” she said.

“When you are feeling a bit frazzled as a parent, having a quick go-to that can help you think differently about a situation or give you a different form of words to use with your child would be hugely helpful.”

Ms Roussety said the app was particularly useful for getting tips without the unsolicited advice that can sometimes come when asking people for help.

“It’s a good way to do it in your own home,” she said.

The app is being developed by Deakin researchers in partnership with community organisation Meli, University of Melbourne and Wayapa Wuurrk, an Aboriginal-led wellbeing group.

Ms Roussety works at one of Meli’s community hubs.

Tiffany Roussety and her four-year-old twin boys – Ari and Sully. Picture: Alison Wynd.

Daily Growth’s lead researcher, associate professor Elizabeth Westrupp, said the app helps children develop their emotional regulation, an important step in being able maintain to healthy relationships throughout their life.

“When children are young, they rely on their parents to teach them how to recognise and manage their emotions through co-regulation, but parents aren’t getting enough support to do this well,” Ms Westrupp said.

“In fact, most families with kids aged two to five don’t receive any evidence-based parenting support.

“We know that modern families are busy, so we have designed a new, quick, and convenient way for parents and carers to get parenting help for common challenging situations.”

Meli’s director of children’s services Mandy Baxter said the app had the potential to help thousands of families.

“We know about 90 per cent of a child’s brain development is reached by the age of five so Meli is excited about the potential of the Daily Growth app to enable parents and carers to help navigate everyday challenges as they arise,” she said.

The researchers are looking for local families keen to trial the app.

Interested parents can get more information at dailygrowth.deakin.edu.au

Originally published as Deakin University researchers are trialling a new app to help parents foster their children’s wellbeing