FAQ

With the Pebbles App, you can help your child explore the world.
Helpful information and illustrations make it easy to understand when and how your child’s new skills will flourish. Everything is held in one place – along with those unforgettable moments – in a playful, scientific and enter-taining way, for one or more children between 0 and 6 years of age.

Registration takes place when you open the app for the first time. If you change or lose your smartphone, you can log in again at any time on an-other device using your email address via Google or Apple. This way, your developmental stages remain saved and accessible.

This is done to keep your data secure. By logging in again, you authenticate yourself and confirm that you are using the service legally. 

Scroll all the way to the right on the start screen to ‘+ another child’ and click on ‘Enter child name’ or go to the settings (icon at the top left) and click on ‘New child’ to create a new profile. The following required fields must be completed: ‘Child name’ (can also be a nickname), ‘Date of birth’ and ‘Gender’. Select a profile picture for your child by clicking on the exist-ing child’s face. You can then select an image source from your gallery or take a current photo with the camera. Select the desired image section and confirm it. Select a colour for your child’s profile and create the profile by clicking ‘Save’.

Yes, you can create new children at any time by scrolling to the far right of the start screen and clicking on the ‘+ additional child’ button or by creat-ing a new child in the settings (icon at the top left) under ‘New child’.

You can create as many profiles as you like.

Yes. You can remove children by scrolling to the desired child in the set-tings (icon at the top left) under ‘Child(ren)’ and clicking on the ‘Remove child’ button.

The app is not intended to be used by more than one person. Some ques-tions are specifically addressed to one person. However, you can share de-velopmental stages and diary entries with a second parent at any time.

If the app was previously installed on a different mobile phone and you mi-grate your data to the new version of the app, you may see some addition-al children appear in your overview with the names ‘child 0’, ‘child 1’, etc. These are leftovers from the old app on your previous mobile phone. You can delete these extra children in the app settings.

Go to ‘App settings’ under Settings (icon at the top left) and click on ‘Change email’.

Under ‘Settings’, scroll to ‘Language selection’ and select the desired lan-guage. Then scroll to the bottom of the settings and click on ‘Save’.

Under ‘Settings’, scroll to the child you want to change and enter the de-sired changes. Then confirm your entries by clicking ‘Save’.

Go to ‘Settings’ and then to the desired child and select a new colour. Then confirm your entries by clicking ‘Save’.

Go to ‘Settings’ and tick the box next to ‘Allow once a week’. 

Under ‘Questions’, you will be asked questions about your child’s abilities based on their age and level of development. The questions relate to de-velopmental progress in terms of motor skills, cognition and language. Sometimes you will also be prompted to play with your child to see what they can already do. If you would like to read more about the developmen-tal stages we ask about, you can find interesting information on the back of the questions.

The questions are generated on a probability basis, derived from previous answers about your child and your child’s age, which means that they are adapted to your child’s level of development.

The questions are not only displayed based on age, but also on the proba-bilities derived from previous answers about the child. An age correction is therefore not necessary.

There are many observable developmental stages in the first few months of life. Consequently, new questions appear more frequently in the first year of life than when the child is older.

In the first few years of life, children go through many developmental stag-es (linguistic-cognitive, motor skill and social-emotional). We would like to record the most important ones.

There are questions that depend on previous answers. For example, if you answer ‘yes’ to a question, you will sometimes receive further questions on the topic in order to ascertain as precisely as possible how far your child has developed in this area.

There is no universal sequence of developmental stages. Children have their own sequence of when they reach various stages. Different children acquire the same skills at different times. The order in which the questions appear in the app reflects the most common sequence across all children.

To correct an erroneous answer, go back to the respective question, select the new answer and click on the arrow pointing to the right or swipe to the next question. The new answer is automatically saved and the old answer is overwritten.
You can also correct erroneous answers later. To do this, go to ‘Develop-ment’ and select the tick in the menu bar at the bottom. Here you will find all the milestones that you have already answered. Select the question you want to change and flip the card over. On the back, you can change the date using the ‘Yes’ button.

Yes. Questions that you answer with ‘No’ return after a certain time.

That’s alright. Just enter the approximate date. We consider the fact that retrospective answers are somewhat less precise. If you still know the exact date, for example, because you have written it down, you can enter the ex-act date in the bottom option.

On the back of each question you will find an explanation of the displayed developmental stage. Turn the card over by clicking on the illustration or on the turn icon to read interesting facts. If you are interested in a particu-lar topic, you can scroll all the way down here and read more articles on the subject.

The abbreviations are explained in the ‘Info’ section (top right) under ‘Ab-breviations’.

Under ‘Knowledge’, you can find interesting information on the develop-mental stages that are queried under ‘Questions’. There are knowledge texts on all subject areas. In the knowledge overview, you can see im-portant milestones in the areas of motor skills, cognition and language.

You can select a specific category (cognition, motor skills, language) in the selection bar and read interesting facts about the development of children in this area. If you turn over the knowledge cards for certain milestones, they will also reveal matching questions that you can answer about your child. You can see all the milestones that your child has already reached under the tick. Under the heart icon you can see items that you have previ-ously favoured.

Knowledge cards for the questions you have already answered appear in light grey in the overview. You can also find them under the tick icon in the selection bar.

Scroll down to the bottom of a knowledge text and click on the heart on the right-hand side. The word ‘save’ under the heart will then change to ‘saved’.

The ‘Share’ function allows you to share your child’s developmental stages with others. To do this, go to ‘Diary’ and select the desired card. Scroll all the way down and select the ‘Share’ icon. Share the content via social me-dia, email or text message. 

Each knowledge card refers to other knowledge cards with similar topics and developmental stages under the heading ‘more articles on this topic’.

Under ‘Knowledge’, the information content of several questions should be displayed in a suitable article for you. If you flip the knowledge card by clicking on the illustration or using the turn icon (selection bar), you will be taken to a corresponding question. To save space and to ensure that the questions are answered at an appropriate time, we do not display all ques-tions at once. Regardless of the knowledge texts you are reading, specific questions are asked under ‘Questions’, adapted to your child’s level of de-velopment.

All entries (milestones reached, text entries, photos) are summarised in the diary and displayed chronologically for you to retrieve at any time. This makes it easy for you to always keep track of your child’s current level of development in the diary. The diary can also be downloaded as a PDF file and printed out.

Questions about the developmental stages that you answer with ‘Yes’ are automatically stored in the diary as milestones. When you answer the question under ‘Yes’, indicate the approximate date when your child reached the developmental stage. If you remember the exact date, you can enter it under ‘since’ in the date selection. The developmental stages are displayed chronologically in the diary.

Yes. To do this, go to the diary, select the desired entry and click on the ‘Share’ icon at the bottom left. You will then choose from the following op-tions: SMS, email and other.

Yes. To do this, go to the diary, select the desired entry and click on the ‘Delete’ icon at the bottom right.

The diary is available to download as a PDF. To do this, select the ‘Diary as PDF’ icon at the top right above the diary overview. You can then select which entries (photos, developmental stages, text entries) you would like to export to the diary. You can also select a time period ‘from – to’. Confirm your selection by clicking on the ‘Send diary’ icon. You will receive a link to download the diary by email. You can use your standard email program to open the link, which remains activated for a limited time and is then deac-tivated again (for data protection).

Under ‘Settings’ you can choose whether you want to see when other chil-dren typically reach the selected milestone in the diary. To activate the graph of other children’s typical development, tick the ‘Show other chil-dren’s typical development’ box. Rotate the diary entry with a click to see the development progression. The graphs show you when children reach certain milestones on average. They show the typical development of oth-er children in comparison. However, development in the first few years var-ies greatly. If you are unsure about your child’s level of development, please contact your paediatrician.

To deactivate the graph of other children’s typical development, untick the ‘Show other children’s typical development’ option in the settings. To do this, go to Settings > Show typical development of other children in the initial menu and remove the tick. 

Yes. Data protection and security are our top priority. You can also find our privacy policy in the app under ‘Info’ (icon at the top right of the home screen), ‘Data protection’.

During registration, logging in and managing the user account through the app, users are asked to log in with a Google or Apple account or to enter their email address (also the user name for the app). By using the login option with Google or Apple, the user agrees that the email address they have stored with Google or Apple will be passed on to enable them to log in to the app. The email address is stored separately from the collected data on the web server and is used to authorise the user. The Department of Developmental Psychology logs acceptance of the terms of use and the privacy policy. No other data is collected automatically, i.e. no data on the mobile device used, on the browser used and on the use of the user account is collected or stored.

Es werden folgende Personendaten innerhalb der App erhoben und auf dem Server des LS Entwicklungspsychologie gespeichert:

• User’s birth year
• User’s highest academic qualification
• User’s country of birth
• Languages spoken by the user
• Child’s date of birth
• Child's name
• Gender of the child
• Week of pregnancy and child’s birth weight
• Languages spoken with the child
• Developmental stages of the child in the following areas:
• Language, e.g.
  • Has your child already started to combine words, e.g. ‘Mummy banana’?: Yes, No
  • Egg (Leg): Talks, Does not talk
  • Mummy’s bag is green.: Scale from 0 ‘never’ to 5 ‘more than twice a day’
  • Does your child use facial expressions that correspond to the word content?: Scale from 1 ‘almost always’ to 5 ‘never/not yet’
• Motor skills, e.g.
  • My child can stand up without walking on all fours first: Yes, No
  • My child can walk two to three steps backwards without me holding her/him: Yes, No
• Cognition, e.g.
  • Put together an age-appropriate puzzle with your child. Can your child properly insert a simple piece into the puzzle?: Yes, No
  • Slowly push a toy car across the table and then to your child. Now, let your child play with it: Yes = Your child pushes the car so that all four wheels touch the table, No = Your child does not move the car, or moves it in another way.
• Social development, e.g.
  • During everyday activities; how often did your child react immediately and attentively when you called them?: Scale from 1 ‘never’ to 7 ‘always’
  • When playing inside; how often did your child run through the house?: Scale from 1 ‘never’ to 7 ‘always’

The following data is collected in the app and stored in a separate database:

• User’s email address

This information is kept separate from research data. Personal data is only collected for the purpose of enabling the use of the app and is not processed together with the research data.
 

The following personal data is collected within the app and is not synchronised with the Department of Developmental Psychology:

• Images of the child (photos)
• Comments on developmental stages
• Your own comments on special events

The Department of Developmental Psychology has no access to these data. The data are stored locally and encrypted on the mobile device, and should be appropriately protected by the user.
 

The data provided to the Department of Developmental Psychology is processed for the following purposes, as approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Zurich: The collected data, which is synchronised with the Department of Developmental Psychology, is used exclusively to analyse developmental stages in the areas of motor skills, language, cognition and social-emotional development. The longitudinal and cross-sectional relationships between these developmental stages are also analysed.
The analyses are only carried out at group level, so that no conclusions can be drawn from the evaluations in relation to the data subjects (development trajectories). whereby the Department of Developmental Psychology investigates how certain development areas are related, and whether and how skills already developed in one area can predict improvements in skills in the same area and across the areas. Users can view their child’s development phases via a visualisation in area and line diagrams, and compare them with other children if desired. These comparisons are given by means of standard data, either in percentage ranks or by T-values. This means that the answers given can be compared to a standard population (100 children of the same age). This comparison does not allow conclusions to be drawn on other determinable children. The studies of the Department of Developmental Psychology are designed indefinitely as a long-term study. The data will be stored for a maximum of 10 years after the end of the studies (long-term studies), and then archived.

The Department of Developmental Psychology does not give collected data that stored on its server to third parties for their own use without either the express consent of the user, or due to a legal obligation. All employees are required to maintain confidentiality. User data may be accessible to third parties (within and outside Switzerland) without the intervention of the Department of Developmental Psychology. In particular, device or software manufacturers (such as Apple or Google) may receive personal information when the app is used. They may process and pass on the data according to their own terms of use or privacy policies. This may cause these third parties to infer a relationship between the user and the Department of Developmental Psychology.

Yes. The Pebbles App is available as a free download from the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).

Select ‘Watch tutorial’ under Info (icon at the top right of the home screen). If you want to end the tutorial early, press ‘Cancel’.

Before you can upload photos directly from your smartphone, you will be asked to authorise the app to access your picture gallery or camera when you use it for the first time. This allows you to easily upload photos to your diary or as a profile picture. You do not have to upload any pictures. This function is purely for creative purposes and is intended solely for you. If you do not want to upload any pictures, you do not need to authorise the app to access your picture gallery or camera.

When you log on to a new device with the same account, all data is automatically transferred, except for the photo and text entries in the diary. They are saved locally on your device and must therefore be recreated manually on the new device.

If you already have the Weltentdecker app installed on your mobile phone, your data will be transferred from the old app to the new app. Once the new app has been installed, register in the Pebbles App with the same email address. Your data can only be transferred if you use the same email address. As soon as you are logged in, you can continue using the app. You can still access all the entries you have compiled so far.
Unfortunately, if you did not have the Weltentdecker app installed on the same mobile phone, it is not possible to transfer the data to the new Pebbles App.