5-A-Day is an evidence based programme to help children flourish.
Five Cornerstones of 5-A-Day
The five cornerstones are;
- reading or storytelling
- playing with
- talking to
- praising
- ensuring a healthy diet.
Play and stimulation build connections in the baby’s brain, helping speech and social development, and preparing for the school environment.
5-A-Day for Residential Parents
One of our residential centres developed 5-A-Day into a structured programme for parents. They include parents who, perhaps had never been read to as children and who were unused to the idea of ever playing with their child, let alone regularly during the day.
5-A-Day Welcome Bag
When they arrive at the house, each parent receives a 5-A-Day goody bag with an age-appropriate book and toy, a wall chart reminder for daily tasks, and other fun learning materials.
Key workers explain 5-A-Day to parents and help them get to grips with it.
There are also weekly sessions with families gathered together which focus on one of the five elements. For example a budget cooking session, online resources (for singing and nursery rhymes), a group outing for outdoor play and stimulation, hand and foot prints, to celebrate and praise. Each session is self-contained so new families can join in at any time.
A high proportion (two thirds) of parents at this house have learning needs and the programme content is adapted accordingly.
Families are extremely positive about 5-A-Day. Keyworkers confirm that parents’ knowledge about child development and their parenting skills improve because of the programme. As the weeks progress, parents’ 5-A-Day reports show them each day fulfilling more of the tasks.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to praise my son each day or read to him, they should teach us about this. I’m going to take my calendar home and make sure I fill it in every day.” Young mother.
5-a-day comes from New Zealand’s SKIP National Parenting Campaign. Learning from SKIP was considered and in 2011 presented as a compelling opportunity for the UK coalition government to improve social mobility: “Drawing directly on the science of early child development, such a ‘5-a-day for child development’ campaign could successfully identify a series of small, manageable steps based on easily graspable, tangible and readily packageable ‘hooks’ that would enable the key messages to take hold in parents’ minds.” Patterson