Project team members:

• Prof. Jasmina Ivšac Pavliša, PhD
• Assoc. Prof. Sanja Šimleša, PhD
• Ana-Marija Bohaček, PhD
• Klara Popčević, PhD
• Monika Rosandić Grgić, mag. logoped
• Blanka Brdarić, assistant

Associates:

• Lidija Šmit Brleković, prof. logoped
• Ana Stipić Lihić, mag. logoped
• Martina Boltužić Dževerlija, prof. logoped

The importance of the environment for early development has long been recognized and confirmed through numerous early learning models. The concept of the family (home) learning environment (HLE) provides a comprehensive framework for describing the activities and conditions that promote learning within a child’s home. Research on HLE is particularly important because the family and home are the primary developmental environments during the most sensitive and plastic period of a child’s life. It is well established that the characteristics of a child’s early environment have cumulative and long-lasting effects on development. Over the past thirty years, patterns of everyday family interactions, the physical environments in which children grow up, social family networks, parental access to information, and similar factors have changed significantly. These transformations have created new developmental conditions. The aim of this project is to describe the HLE in which today’s children in the Republic of Croatia are growing up and to determine the relationship between these conditions and the early communication and language development of typically developing children and children with developmental disabilities. The project is based on bioecological and transactional models of development and provides an innovative contribution to understanding the interaction between developmental and contextual factors. The innovative aspects of the project include a comparative analysis of the HLE of typically developing children and children with developmental disabilities; a focus on early childhood and the characteristics of children’s communication skills (in contrast to previous research primarily centered on language and academic skills); the use of a multi-method approach and direct measurement of environmental characteristics within the home; and the application of digital tools for data collection and processing. Furthermore, this project is the first to provide systematic data on the social and cultural specificities of HLE in Croatia. The project also holds strong translational potential for developing guidelines for working with parents, training professionals, and shaping public policies focused on early childhood and inclusion.