Children’s mathematical, linguistic and social skills and motivation develop rapidly during the first years of life, and these early skills create the basis for the development of skills later in school. The VUOKKO study is a longitudinal study, in which the development of these skills are followed across 10 years in the educational and home contexts. The first aim of the study is to comprehensively investigate the development of children’s skills in early childhood and school age, and to better understand the individual developmental paths of skills and protective and risk factors related to skill development.
Early childhood education (ECE) and school are environments, where children interact with both adults and peers. The quality of these interactions has a key role in shaping children’s daily experiences in ECE and providing support for the child’s growth and development. The second aim of VUOKKO study is to provide new information about the interaction between children and their ECE personnel and the classroom teachers and its connection to children’s development and learning in toddlerhood, 5–6 years of age, and in grades 1–5.
The interactive experiences of the home environment and the parents’ own skills form another central environment for children’s learning. The third aim of VUOKKO study is to build a deeper understanding of the role that home environment plays in the development of children’s skills. Longitudinal research provides additional information on the combined effects of the child’s relevant learning environments (home–day care center–school) to support growth, development, and learning.
The figure below shows the continuum of the VUOKKO study from toddler groups in day care centers to 5th grade in school.
VUOKKO study in schools (2023–2025)
During academic years 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 the children are on the 4th and 5th grades in school. VUOKKO study continues during these years with funding from the CRITICAL-research project. In this phase, the focus in VUOKKO study is especially on the development of children’s critical reading as well as to continue to follow the development of children’s mathematical skills. Other areas of interest are the quality of interaction and teachers’ pedagogical practices and the factors of home environment (e.g., parents’ thoughts about critical reading and how to support it) as predictors of critical reading.
During the data collection of the 4th and 5th grade of the VUOKKO study (see figure below), the children complete tasks related to critical reading and mathematics with a researcher during regular school days (3 hrs / spring term). In addition the interaction between the teacher and the children during lessons focusing on reading comprehension is being video recorded in the participating classrooms. Class teachers are also asked to fill out a questionnaire and individually evaluate the children’s skills.
Once a year, the children’s guardians are asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding the background information of the family and the child, the guardians’ views on home and school as learning environments, as well as thoughts on critical reading and how to support it.
The funding for the data collection during 4th and 5th grade has been granted by the Strategic Research Council (STN), which operates in connection with the Research Council of Finland as part of Information literacy and evidence-informed decision-making (LITERACY) program (Project no. 335625 and no. 335727). More information of CRITICAL project can be found from
The VUOKKO metadata includes more information about the implementation, procedures and measures used in VUOKKO follow-up during ECEC phase and school grades 1, 2 and 3.
Nurminen, T., Torppa, M., Koponen, T., Eklund, K., & Salminen, J. (2024). Metadata of the Study: Interaction, Development & Learning (VUOKKO) - A Longitudinal Study from Toddlerhood to Grade 3. Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.
