FAQ

With the Pebbles App, you can accompany your child as they discover the world. Helpful information and illustrations make it easy to understand when and how your child develops new skills. Together with unforgettable moments, you can capture different developmental milestones all in one place – scientifically grounded and visually engaging, for one or several children between the ages of 0 and 6 years.

Registration takes place when you first open the Pebbles App, using your email address, Google login, or Apple login. If you change or lose your smartphone, you can log back in on another device at any time.

You can create a new child profile at any time by scrolling all the way to the right on the home screen and clicking the “+” symbol, or by going to the settings (gear icon in the top left corner) under “New Child”. The following required fields need to be filled in:

• Child’s name (this can also be a nickname)
• Date of birth
• Gender

Optionally, you can add a profile picture for your child. To do so, click on the displayed child’s face. You can either choose a picture from your gallery or take a new photo with your camera. Select a color for your child’s profile and complete the setup by clicking “Save”.

You can create as many profiles as you like.

Yes. You can remove a child by opening the settings (gear icon in the top left corner), selecting the child, scrolling all the way down, and clicking “Remove child”.

The Pebbles App is not designed for simultaneous use by multiple people. Some questions are addressed specifically to one caregiver. However, developmental milestones and diary entries can be shared with others at any time.

Open the settings by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner of the start screen. At the top of the settings, you will see tabs. Select the tab “General information”. There you can change your email address. Then scroll all the way down in the settings and tap “Save”.

Please note: This function is only available for accounts registered with an email address. If you signed in via Google or Apple, the email address cannot be changed within the Pebbles App. Any changes must be made directly through Google or Apple.

Open the settings by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner of the start screen. At the top of the settings, you will see tabs. Select the tab “General information”. There you will find the language selection. Choose your preferred language and then tap “Save” at the bottom.

Open the settings by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner of the start screen. Under the tab “General information”, you can allow push notifications by checking the box next to “Allow once a week”. You can also choose whether to receive them in the morning or evening. Then scroll all the way down in the settings and tap “Save”.

If you activate this function in the settings, you can compare your child’s developmental milestones with the typical progress of other Pebbles children in the diary. To do so, select a milestone your child has reached and flip the card. A graphic will then appear, showing the average age at which children typically reach this milestone.

Please note: Development in the first years of life is highly individual. The comparison chart is intended as orientation, not as an assessment. If you are unsure about your child’s development, please consult your pediatrician.

Open the settings by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner of the start screen. At the top of the settings, you will see tabs. Select the tab “General information”. Scroll down to the “Account” section. There you will find the option “Delete account”.

Please note: Once you delete your account, your data cannot be restored.

Open the settings by tapping the gear icon in the top left corner of the start screen. At the top of the settings, you will see tabs with the names of your children. Select the desired child and edit details such as name, date of birth, gender, profile picture, or profile color. Then scroll all the way down and tap “Save”.

The questions track developmental milestones in areas such as motor control, language, and cognition. They are tailored to your child’s age and stage of development. Sometimes you and your child can even try things out together to see what your child can already do. If you would like to learn more about the individual milestones, you will find interesting background information on the back of each question. To flip the card, tap the illustration or the flip symbol.

The questions appear continuously and are adapted to your child’s age and your previous answers. They appear more frequently during the first year of life, and sometimes earlier than expected, to make sure no important milestones are missed. Therefore, at the beginning you may find yourself answering more often that your child cannot yet do something.

Currently, the Pebbles App does not take age correction for premature children into account, which may cause some questions to appear earlier than expected. We are aware of this issue and plan to address it in a future update.

Some questions build on each other. After a “Yes,” follow-up questions may appear. This is necessary to capture your child’s developmental progress as accurately as possible.

Child development does not follow a fixed pattern. Every child develops new skills at their own pace and in their own sequence. Some milestones appear earlier, others later. The sequence of questions in the Pebbles App reflects how skills typically develop across many children.

If you accidentally answered a question incorrectly, you can change your answer at any time. If you are still in the current question round, you can go back to the previous question using the arrow at the bottom left or by swiping right, and select a new answer. This will be saved automatically.

If you have already left the question round, you can also change your answers later. The steps differ depending on whether you accidentally selected “Yes” or “No”:

• Accidentally selected “Yes”:
  If you marked a milestone as reached or chose the wrong date, you can correct this: On the home screen, go to the “Development” section and tap the checkmark symbol at the bottom left. There you will see all milestones you have already answered with “Yes.” Select the milestone you want to correct, flip the card by tapping the illustration or the flip symbol, and adjust your answer or the date.

• Accidentally selected “No”:
  If you indicated that your child has not yet reached a milestone even though they already have, this question will automatically be asked again after two weeks. You can simply wait and correct your answer then. If you want to change the answer earlier, go to the “Development” section. There you can use the search bar to look up keywords from the question – for example “ball” or “puzzle” – and adjust the corresponding answer. This change will also be saved automatically.

Yes. Questions that you answered with “No” will reappear after about two weeks.

That’s no problem. Simply enter the date approximately. We are aware that time entries become less precise the further back they go. However, if you still know the exact date – for example because you wrote it down – you can enter it precisely using the lowest option (“since …”).

The abbreviations refer to different question categories. For example, FM stands for questions about fine motor skills. You can find an overview of all abbreviations (e.g., FM01, GM02) in the “Info” section. To access it, tap the “i” symbol at the top right of the home screen. Under the menu item “Abbreviations,” you will find the complete list.

On the back of each question, you will find explanations and useful information about the developmental milestone shown. Flip the card by tapping the illustration or the flip symbol. If a topic particularly interests you, you can scroll all the way down to find additional articles on the subject.

Questions are intentionally asked early to capture your child’s developmental milestones in time. Some children show certain skills very early, while others reach them later – both are completely normal. By asking questions early, we make sure that many time points are covered and no milestones are missed.

In the overview, you will first see all developmental milestones, sorted thematically (not chronologically). Milestones your child has already reached are marked with a check mark. At the bottom, you can filter milestones by the categories “motor control,” “cognition,” and “language” by tapping on the respective category. If you tap the check mark on the left within the same tab, you will see all milestones your child has already achieved.

When you tap on a card, you will receive additional information about the respective milestone. You can use the arrow keys to navigate to the previous or next article. By using the flip symbol on the card, you can turn it over and indicate whether your child has already reached that milestone.

At the top, you will find a search function that allows you to look for specific cards – for example, by entering keywords such as “ball” or “writing.” Matching cards will then be displayed directly.

If you would like to share interesting milestones or knowledge content with others, you can use the integrated sharing function. To do so, open the desired card in the “Development” section and scroll all the way down. There you will find the “Share” symbol. With a single tap, you can forward the content directly via email, SMS, or social media.

At the end of each article, you can save it as a favorite by tapping the heart symbol. All saved favorites can be found in the full overview of developmental milestones by tapping on the heart symbol.

At the bottom of each card, you will find the note “More articles on the topic.” Here you will be shown additional cards with related milestones or similar content. By tapping one of the illustrations, you will be taken directly to the corresponding card with further information.

In the diary, you can see all entries for your child at a glance – including milestones reached, your own text notes, and uploaded photos. Everything is displayed in chronological order and can be accessed at any time, giving you a complete overview of your child’s development.

To create your own entries, first open the diary. At the bottom right, you will see two icons:

• Use the camera icon to add photos – either from your gallery or by taking a new picture with your camera. You can then give the photo a title, description, and date, and save it by tapping “Save to diary.”
• If you want to create a text entry without a photo, select the text icon. There, you can add a title, choose a date, and write your text. This entry will also be saved in the diary and displayed chronologically.

Open the diary and select the entry you want to delete. If you scroll down, you will find the “Delete” icon. Tap it to remove the entry.

Open the diary and select the entry you want to share. Scroll down until you see the “Share” icon. Tap it and choose the channel you would like to use – for example, email, SMS, or social media.

Yes, you can download your diary as a PDF and print it. In the diary overview, tap the “Diary in PDF format” icon in the top right corner. Then choose which content (photos, development phases, text entries) should be included and define a time period (“from – to”). By tapping “Send diary,” the file will be created. You will then receive an email with a link to download it. For data protection reasons, this link is valid for only 48 hours. After downloading, you can save or print the file.

Pictures and text entries in the diary are stored exclusively on your device – for data protection reasons, they are not uploaded to the server. If you use the Pebbles App on a new phone or if your device has been reset, this data will no longer be available.

To keep such data when switching devices, you can export the diary as a PDF in advance (via the “Diary in PDF format” icon in the top right corner of the diary section).

In the Pebbles App, you can compare your child’s milestones with typical trajectories of other Pebbles children. To use this function, go to the settings and check the box “Show typical development of other children.”

If this function is activated, you can select a milestone reached in the diary and flip the card. A graphic will then appear, showing the average age at which children typically reach this milestone.

Please note: Development in the first years of life is highly individual. The comparison chart is intended as orientation, not as an assessment. If you are unsure, please consult your pediatric practice.

Yes. Protecting your data is our top priority. We follow the legal requirements of the Canton of Zurich (IDG). The Professorship of Developmental Psychology, as the responsible institution, ensures that your data is treated confidentially and processed securely. For this reason, all information collected in the Pebbles App is end-to-end encrypted and does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about individual persons.

You can access our full privacy policy at any time in the Pebbles App under “Info” (the “i” icon at the top right of the home screen) under the section “Privacy Policy.”

Your email address is only used to recognize you in the Pebbles App – for example, if you change your device or need to log in again. It is stored separately from all other data and used solely for login purposes. In addition, the fact that you have agreed to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy is stored.

No other data is collected automatically. This means that no information about the user’s mobile device, browser, or account usage is collected or stored.

The following personal data is collected within the Pebbles App and stored on the server of the Professorship of Developmental Psychology:

• Voluntary information about the adult user, e.g., year of birth, education, country of birth, spoken languages.
• Information about the child, e.g., date of birth, gender, birth weight, gestational week, spoken languages.
• Answers to questions about the child’s development in the following areas:
  - Motor control (e.g., “My child can stand up without first going on all fours.” – Yes/No and specified date)
  - Language (e.g., “Has your child already started combining words, such as ‘Mama banana’?” Yes/No and specified date)
  - Cognition (e.g., “Do a puzzle with your child that is appropriate for their age. Can your child correctly fit a simple piece into the puzzle?” – Yes/No and specified date)
  - Socio-emotional development (e.g., During daily activities: how often did your child respond immediately when you called them? – Scale from 1 “never” to 7 “always”)
• The user’s email address and the child’s name (or nickname) are also collected but stored separately in a different database. This is used exclusively to enable the use of the Pebbles App, e.g., for login. The email address is not linked to developmental data. All analyses are conducted in anonymized form.

Uploaded photos, personal comments on developmental milestones, and diary entries remain stored exclusively on your smartphone – the research team has no access to them. The data is stored locally in encrypted form on your mobile device and should be protected by the user with appropriate measures (e.g., by using a strong password).

The data you enter into the Pebbles App and that is synchronized with the research team at the Professorship of Developmental Psychology is used solely for the study of child development. The aim is to understand how children typically develop in different domains – motor control, language, cognition, and socio-emotional development – how these domains are related, and whether and how already developed competencies in one domain can predict the acquisition of new skills both within and across domains.

The study objectives and data usage have been reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Zurich.

All analyses are carried out exclusively at the group level. No individual profiles are created, and no conclusions can be drawn about specific children or app users.

If you wish, you can compare your child’s development within the Pebbles App with the typical trajectories of other children. These are presented in the form of charts based on normative data. This means that the answers you provide can be compared with a reference group of other children. Again, no conclusions can be drawn about individual children.

The studies conducted by the Professorship of Developmental Psychology are designed as long-term studies of indefinite duration.

Because transparent and traceable research is important to us, we make selected raw data available to other researchers to enable further scientific use. This publication takes place exclusively in anonymized form: no names or other details are shared that would allow conclusions about individual children or app users. The aim is to make scientific findings openly accessible without compromising your privacy.

Apart from this, your data will not be shared with third parties by the Professorship of Developmental Psychology unless you explicitly agree to it or there is a legal obligation to do so. All staff are bound by confidentiality.

Please note: however: when using the Pebbles App, other companies – such as Apple or Google – may also technically collect certain data, for example via the app store or your device settings. These companies process your data according to their own privacy policies, over which the Professorship of Developmental Psychology has no influence. As a result, it is theoretically possible that such providers could infer a connection between the user and the Professorship of Developmental Psychology.

Yes, the Pebbles App can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android). There are no fees – neither for installation nor for the use of individual features. There are also no in-app purchases or paid upgrades. You can use all features completely free of charge.

The Pebbles App can also be used without an active internet connection. You can answer already loaded questions, create diary entries, and access many contents offline.

An internet connection is only required to load new questions, register or log in, update the Pebbles App, or send the diary as a PDF.

The app works on Android smartphones (from version 6.0) as well as on iPhones (from iOS 13.4).

It can also be used on tablets (Android tablets and iPads) and on MacBooks (from macOS 11.0 with Apple M1 chip or newer). Please note that the app is optimized for portrait mode on tablets, so the display may sometimes look unusual.

The Pebbles App does not work on Windows PCs.

Go to Info (i-symbol at the top right of the home screen) and select “Watch tutorial”. If you want to exit the tutorial early, tap Cancel.

If you want to upload a photo from your gallery into the diary or as a profile picture, the Pebbles App needs access to your photos. The first time you use this feature, you will be asked whether you want to grant permission.

This is not mandatory: if you do not want to upload photos, you can simply deny access. The Pebbles App works fully without this feature. Uploading photos is only intended to make the diary more personal.

If you log in on a new device using the same email address, all developmental data of your child will automatically be transferred.

However, your photos and personal diary entries will not be transferred, since these are stored locally on the old device. If you want to keep them, you will need to add them again on your new device.

Text entries and photos in the diary are stored exclusively on your device and are not backed up on a server. Therefore, they will not be automatically available after reinstalling the app or on a new device.

To keep your entries, we recommend the following: open the diary and tap the “Diary in PDF format” icon at the top right. Select which contents (photos, development phases, texts) should be included and set a time period. A PDF will then be created and sent to you by email. Save this file in a secure place, e.g., in your cloud or on your computer.

If you currently have the kleineWeltentdecker App installed on your phone, your data will be transferred automatically to the new Pebbles App. Simply install the Pebbles App and register with the same email address as before. The transfer will only work if you use the same address and still have the kleineWeltentdecker App installed. After logging in, all your previous entries will be available as usual.

If you used the kleineWeltentdecker App on another device or have uninstalled it in the meantime, data transfer will unfortunately not be possible.

Please note: after migration, additional child profiles such as child 0, child 1 etc. may appear. These come from the old app version. You can easily delete them by going to the settings (icon at the top left), selecting the respective child, scrolling down, and tapping Delete child information.

We greatly appreciate your interest in our studies! If you would like to participate in a developmental psychology study with your child, you can register using our online form. When registering, you can specify whether you would like to be informed about on-site studies (in Zurich-Oerlikon) or only about online studies (e.g., if you do not live nearby). Once we conduct a study suitable for your child’s age group, we will contact you.

Please note that it may take some time until we contact you, depending on which studies are currently running. Participation is, of course, voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time.