Early Years App FAQs

The Early Years SA app has been developed to support South Australian parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 5 years. It provides trusted information on child health, learning, development, and wellbeing, tailored to your child's age.

With the Early Years SA app, you can:

• filter information to what you need based on your child's age
• record your child's growth
• get reminders for when child health and development checks, immunisations, and dental checks are due
• find out about preschool and school enrolment
• connect with early years’ service providers such as Child and Family Health Service (CaFHS), ForWhen, and Kidsafe.

The Early Years SA App complements the Blue Book but does not replace it. Healthcare professionals will record of all your child’s treatments, immunisations and accurate growth and development records directly into their Blue Book, so it is important to remember to take it to any appointment to provide your child’s medical history.

The Early Years app complements your child’s Blue Book but does not replace it.

The Blue Book is used by your midwives, doctors and community nurses to record important health information about your child. It is important to remember to take it to all child health checks, GP appointments, and immunisation visits.

If you have misplaced your child’s Blue Book, a replacement can be collected from your local Child and Family Health Service (CaFHS) clinic. Visit www.cafhs.sa.gov.au/locations for your nearest location.

The Early Years SA app allows you to enter:

• your child’s weight, height and head circumference
• the date a developmental milestone is met
• when an appointment has been booked.

Data is currently stored locally on your mobile device. It is important that any data added to the app is also added to your Blue Book. You can also regularly export your data for safe keeping.

To find out more about how your information is collected and used by the Office for Early Childhood Development, please view: The Early Years SA Mobile Application Privacy Statement.

The Early Years SA app stores data locally, which means any information entered is saved directly to the device used at the time.

It is important that any data added to the app is also added to your Blue Book. You can also keep a backup of your records by regularly exporting your data for safe keeping.

No, the information and resources in the Early Years SA app are provided as a guide only and do not replace any advice from your child’s medical professional. If your child requires medical advice, please contact Child and Family Health Service, your General Practitioner, paediatrician and/or local health authorities.

If you need urgent or emergency help, call 000 to contact police, fire, or ambulance emergency services.

While the Early Years App is a great tool to remind you when you need to make important appointments for your child’s health and development, you cannot currently book or change appointments through the app. However, the app does provide contact numbers to relevant service providers to book or change appointments.

Remember, it’s important to take your Blue Book to all appointments.

The Early Years SA app displays a range of content from South Australian, Australian, and international organisations, from both government and non-government sources.

The developmental milestones listed in the app are sourced from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are also included in the most recent version of the Blue Book. These developmental milestones are based on extensive research and recommended for use.

The content of the Early Years SA app is currently available in English. However, the following resources within the app are accessible in other languages:

• GreatStart activities, everyday learning for numeracy and literacy flyer has been translated into multiple languages.
• Parenting SA provides a Multicultural Parent Easy Guides in multiple languages.
• The Child and Family Health Service website features a Translate toggle that converts the site into a variety of languages.

The Early Years SA app provides information about developmental milestones, sleep, nutrition, learning health, wellbeing, safety, and injury prevention for children aged 0-5 years. Once your child turns 6, the app’s content will no longer be relevant, and any new growth measurements entered will not appear on the growth chart. However, you can continue to access to all the resources and activities available.

If you have any concerns about your child’s health or development after they turn 6, please book an appointment with your general practitioner.