Caregiver-reported availability of home learning materials for toddlers in underserved communities

To describe caregiver-reported availability of toddler-appropriate learning materials among underserved families and examine short-term changes in reported availability.

The home learning environment includes structural resources, such as toys, books, and learning materials, that may support early childhood development. Although prior research has examined overall cognitive stimulation and caregiver-child interactions, less is known about specific types of learning materials and how their availability changes over time, particularly among families receiving care in safety-net settings.

This secondary analysis included 148 caregivers of 18-36-month-old children recruited from two Federally Qualified Health Centers in Florida and New York as part of a larger pilot study of the Prescription for Play (P4P) program. Caregivers who did (n = 38) and did not (n = 110) receive P4P completed the Availability of Learning Materials (ALM) subscale of the StimQ₂ Toddler at baseline and three-month follow-up. The ALM assesses the presence of learning materials across five domains: Symbolic Play, Art, Adaptive/Fine Motor, Language, and Life-Size Play. Because P4P was not designed to modify home learning materials and no intervention effects were detected, caregivers were analyzed as a single cohort regardless of P4P exposure. Paired-samples t-tests examined within-family changes over time.

Caregivers reported relatively high availability of learning materials across all ALM domains at both time points. Significant increases were observed in total ALM scores (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.44), as well as in Symbolic Play (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.49) and Art (p = 0.007, Cohen's d = 0.28) domains. Changes in the remaining ALM domains were small and did not reach statistical significance (ps > 0.05, Cohen's ds < 0.16).

Caregivers from safety-net pediatric settings reported the availability of a broad range of toddler-appropriate learning materials, with modest increases over a 3-month period. These findings suggest that caregivers provide their toddlers with a range of developmentally supportive learning materials. However, future research is needed to clarify whether the availability of such materials translates to enhanced material use, caregiver-child interaction quality, or child developmental outcomes.