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

OBJECTIVE: To describe caregiver-reported availability of toddler-appropriate learning materials among underserved families and examine short-term changes in reported availability. BACKGROUND: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSION: 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.