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The research behind Bright Bubs

Every game is rooted in published research about how young children play.

Bright Bubs is an app for parents of children from birth to five. You take a photo of a toy, and the app gives you a short game made for your child's age. Every game starts from our playbook, a set of play ideas for each age that we wrote from published research on play, talk and safety. That research shapes small, practical choices in every game you play.

Talking and playing

Play is a back-and-forth, long before your child can talk.

When your baby makes a sound, you answer, and your baby answers back, the two of you are taking turns. Researchers at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University call this back-and-forth "serve and return". They describe these small exchanges as part of the foundation for a child's later learning.

That is why Bright Bubs games are built around turns. A short pause after you act leaves room for your child to take theirs.

Sources Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, Serve and Return. Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko and Song (2014).

  1. Your babyBangs a block on the floor.
  2. YouBang your block too, and say "Bang, bang."
  3. You wait.
  4. Your babyLooks at you, and bangs again.
  5. YouSmile, and take your next turn.

Guided play

Children learn well when you set up the play and then follow their lead.

Setting up the play and then following the child's lead is what researchers call guided play. Guided play sits between free play, where a child leads and the adult watches, and being taught, where an adult shows and the child copies. In a review of studies, Deena Weisberg and her colleagues found that guided play can help children learn as well as being taught, or better.

An older study of how adults help young children describes a related rule: give enough help for the next step, and then step back so that your child does the rest.

In every Bright Bubs game, you set up the play and then follow your child. Every game also has an easier way in, for a day when it is too hard, and a way to go further, for a day when it is too easy.

Sources Weisberg et al. (2016), Guided play. Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976).

Free play

Your child leads, and you watch.

Bright Bubs games

Guided play

You set up the play and follow your child's lead.

Being taught

You show, and your child copies.

Too hard today? Every game has an easier way in.

Too easy today? Every game has a way to go further.

What you do

Each game asks you to do one small thing, and tells you why it helps.

Bright Bubs uses twelve small actions a parent can take in a game, such as copying your child or naming what your child is looking at. Each game asks you for one of them. The reason that comes with it is written in advance from a published source, and it is never written by AI.

  • Wait after you act.

    A pause gives your child time to take a turn, and turns are where the back-and-forth happens.

    Harvard, Serve and Return

  • Follow their lead.

    When you join what your child picked, you work with the attention your child already has.

    Tomasello and Farrar, 1986

  • Name what they are looking at.

    Naming what your child is already looking at links your word to what is on your child's mind right now.

    Tomasello and Farrar, 1986

  • Copy what they do.

    Copying your child's sound or movement shows your child that what they did reached you.

    Agnetta and Rochat, 2004

  • Add a word to what they say.

    Saying back what your child said, with one word added, gives your child the next step in a form they can use.

    Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko and Song, 2014

  • Say what they did.

    Telling your child what they did, or how they tried, points to the doing rather than to being clever.

    Gunderson et al., 2013

The other six include playing the same game again, and pausing when your child looks away.

Six areas of play

Almost every skill in the six areas of play matches an item on the CDC's milestone checklists.

Every game names the area of play it belongs to. The six areas hold 41 skills, from rolling and sitting to taking turns. Almost every skill sits in the same area as an item on "Learn the Signs. Act Early.", the milestone checklists of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Bright Bubs uses the checklists to know when a game can start, never to measure your child.

Area in Bright BubsArea on the CDC checklistsOne skill, and the checklist item behind it
MovingMovementRolling and sitting. At 9 months, the CDC lists "sits without support".
Hands and fingersMovementUsing both hands. At 9 months, the CDC lists "moves things from one hand to her other hand".
TalkingLanguageNaming things. At 15 months, the CDC lists "looks at a familiar object when you name it".
ThinkingThinking and learningHiding and finding. At 9 months, the CDC lists "looks for objects when dropped out of sight".
Feelings and taking turnsSocial and emotionalFeelings and calming down. At 2 months, the CDC lists "calms down when spoken to or picked up".
Music and sensesThinking, learning and languageRhythm. No CDC item covers rhythm, so this skill rests on a study in which babies moved more to music than to speech (Zentner and Eerola, 2010).

Ages

An age tells Bright Bubs when a game can start, never when your child should be ready.

The CDC puts each checklist item at the age when about three in four children show it, so many children start to learn a skill earlier. A Bright Bubs game for that skill therefore opens at the checklist age or before it, and the app never tells you that your child is late.

New games open at these ages, in months

  1. 0
  2. 2
  3. 4
  4. 6
  5. 9
  6. 12
  7. 18
  8. 24
  9. 36
  10. 48
  11. 60

Born early?

For a baby born four or more weeks early, Bright Bubs uses the corrected age, which counts from the due date instead of the birth date. It does this until the second birthday, or until the third birthday for a baby born eight or more weeks early.

Every child's own pace

Children reach the same skill months apart, and some skip a skill such as crawling altogether.Read how far apart, and why Bright Bubs never tells you your child is late.

Sources CDC, Learn the Signs. Act Early. Zubler et al. (2022). WHO Motor Development Study (2006). American Academy of Pediatrics, Corrected Age for Preemies.

What to expect

Bright Bubs gives your child a chance to learn through play, and promises nothing more.

Research has measured some skills well, such as sitting, walking and first words, and has studied others, such as feelings, much less. Bright Bubs names a skill in a game only when a published source places that skill at your child's age.

Bright Bubs is

  • A game for the toy in front of you, made for your child's age in months.
  • A reason for what you do in each game, taken from a published source.
  • The name of the skill your child is learning, in one of six areas of play.

Bright Bubs is not

  • A test or a milestone tracker. Bright Bubs never scores your child and never compares your child with anyone.
  • A medical or diagnostic tool. Questions about your child's health belong with your doctor or nurse.
  • A way to get your child ahead. A game gives your child a chance to learn through play, and Bright Bubs promises nothing more than that.

Sources

The playbook is built on these published sources.

For every skill, the playbook names the source that places the skill at its age. These are some of those sources, grouped by what they shape in a game.

Ages and skills

Play and talk

Safety

Bright Bubs is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these organizations or authors.

More about how Bright Bubs works

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