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Background Children’s literacy and mathematical competencies are a critical platform for their successful functioning as individuals in society. However, many children, in particular those with low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds who may not receive the home support needed to develop to their full potential, are at risk of not reaching sufficient competence levels. The overall aim of this project is to develop innovative computer tablet applications (‘apps’) and test whether the apps support parents in the provision of high-quality home learning environments (HLEs) and impact positively on the short- and long-term development of children’s competencies. Altogether, “App-based learning for kindergarten children at home” (Learning4Kids) is a 5-year longitudinal study funded by the EU and designed to assess the potential impact of a tablet-based family intervention on children’s learning, development, social inclusion and well-being. Methods/design This study uses a multi-method intervention approach and draws on expertise from psychology, education, informatics, and didactics to evaluate the effectiveness of learning apps and the intervention approach. It also exploits new technological possibilities afforded by tablet computers that are very common nowadays in families. Learning4Kids sets out to measure the quality of the HLE, children’s early mathematical, literacy, and cognitive competencies and their behaviour. Here, data will be gathered via standardized tests, observations, and parental and educator surveys and checklists. Data collection also includes the assessment of app usage times via mobile sensing. In cohort 1, 190 families are assigned to one of four groups. One business-as-usual group will only participate in the child assessments, whereas the three remaining groups are provided with tablets for about 10 months. Two intervention groups will receive mathematical or literacy learning apps as well as parental information about these topics and the tablet-control-group will receive similar apps and information that focus on general child development, but not on mathematics or literacy. Discussion Whilst offering substantive advances for the scientific fields of psychology and education, the Learning4Kids study also has broad societal implications. Improving young children’s learning trajectories is both a social and economic imperative as it equips them to achieve greater individual success and to contribute to societal prosperity.

Both linguistic and socioemotional competencies develop in early childhood in the context of children's learning environments at home and during interactions with their parents. To support linguistic competencies, the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) and shared reading routines play a crucial role. In turn, research also indicates associations between the HLE and children's socioemotional development. Based on a sam-This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Zusammenfassung. Während die Bedeutung frühen Vorlesens für die weitere Entwicklung von Kindern bereits in vielen Forschungsarbeiten nachgewiesen wurde, fehlen aktuelle Daten zum Vorleseverhalten von Eltern mit Kindern unter 3 Jahren. Ziel der Studie war daher eine repräsentative Erhebung und deskriptive Beschreibung der Vorleselandschaft in Deutschland, von Familien mit Kindern im Alter von 3 bis 39 Monaten. In face-to-face Interviews mit Eltern ( N = 523) wurden Einstellungen zum Vorlesen, Vorlesebeginn und -häufigkeit, Home Literacy Environment (HLE), Angaben zum Sprachstand des Kindes und der demografische Hintergrund erfasst. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass 79.0 % ( n = 413) der Eltern ihrem Kind in den ersten drei Jahren vorlesen und im Durchschnitt damit beginnen, wenn das Kind 10 Monate alt ist ( M = 9.90, SD = 6.67). Vorlesende und nicht-vorlesende Eltern unterscheiden sich in dieser Stichprobe signifikant hinsichtlich ihres Bildungs- und Migrationshintergrunds, der Häufigkeit weiterer Alltagsaktivitäten mit ihrem Kind sowie in ihren Ansichten zum Einfluss des Vorlesens und Sprechens mit Kindern auf deren weitere Entwicklung. Es zeigen sich signifikante Zusammenhänge zwischen der HLE, der Vorlesehäufigkeit und dem Sprachstand des Kindes. Implikationen der Studie für die frühkindliche Leseförderung werden diskutiert.

Children’s numeracy competencies are not only relevant for their academic achievement, but also later in life. The development of early numeracy competencies is influenced by children’s learning environment. Here, the home numeracy environment (HNE) and parent’s own beliefs about mathematics play an important role for children’s numeracy competencies. However, only a few studies explicitly tested these associations separately for mothers and fathers. In our study, we assessed mothers’ and fathers’ mathematical gender stereotypes, self-efficacy and their beliefs on the importance of mathematical activities at home, and tested their associations with parents’ numeracy activities and children’s numeracy competencies in a sample of N = 160 children (n = 80 girls) with an average age of M = 59.15 months (SD = 4.05). Both, fathers and mothers regarded boys as being more competent in mathematics than girls. Fathers when compared to mothers reported a greater mathematical self-efficacy. Further, only mothers’ self-efficacy was associated with the frequency of numeracy activities with the study child. In contrast, only fathers’ beliefs on the importance of mathematics was associated with their numeracy activities which, in turn, predicted children’s numeracy competencies. However, the non-invariant constructs and varying results lead to the question whether a revision of existing scales assessing parental beliefs and home numeracy activities is needed to investigate differences of mothers and fathers and their potential associations with children’s numeracy outcomes.

The revised RTS can make a positive contribution to ensuring that rehabilitation is of high quality. Further research is needed to increase the level of evidence - especially regarding the intensity of therapy.

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