Saudi Mothers’ Perspectives on Early Home Learning: Play, Literacy, and Socioemotional Experiences in Everyday Family Interactions

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how Saudi mothers describe the relationship between play, literacy-related practices, and socioemotional experiences within everyday home learning interactions. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 15 mothers of children aged 3–6 years in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, the study employed reflexive thematic analysis to examine mothers’ accounts of shared reading, symbolic play, routine-based interaction, sibling engagement, and media-related learning. The findings suggest that mothers frequently narrated literacy-related experiences—such as vocabulary use, emergent reading behaviors, storytelling, and symbolic representation—alongside socioemotional experiences, including confidence, motivation, emotional security, persistence, and self-regulation. Rather than providing direct evidence of children’s developmental change, the study shows how mothers perceived and interpreted these domains as interconnected within relational home interactions. Play emerged as an important context, but the findings also highlight the broader role of responsive relational interaction across non-play routines such as shared reading, cooking, storytelling, and sibling exchanges. The study proposes a provisional interpretive framework that organizes mothers’ narratives around family and educational background, interactional opportunities, relational qualities, and perceived child experiences. This framework is intended as hypothesis-generating rather than as a validated developmental model. Situated within a Saudi sociocultural context, the study contributes to early childhood research by foregrounding mothers’ perspectives on the relational and culturally embedded nature of early home learning.

1. Introduction

Early childhood development is increasingly understood as an integrated process in which cognitive, linguistic, and socioemotional competencies develop through reciprocal and contextually embedded interactions. Contemporary research has demonstrated that self-regulation, executive function, and socioemotional competencies are not peripheral to academic learning but foundational to it (Blair & Raver, 2015; McClelland et al., 2007). Indeed, longitudinal evidence suggests that early self-regulation uniquely predicts academic outcomes, particularly in mathematics and literacy (Blair et al., 2022), while socioemotional skills mediate pathways to later achievement (Montroy et al., 2016). Despite this growing consensus, much of the research examining home-based learning environments continues to operationalize development through domain-specific lenses, often isolating literacy practices from socioemotional processes. While constructivist and bioecological theories have long emphasized the integration of developmental domains, many empirical operationalizations of home literacy environments continue to rely on domain-specific indicators (Wirth et al., 2020; van Bergen et al., 2017).

Traditional models of the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) have emphasized structural indicators such as access to books and frequency of shared reading (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Melhuish et al., 2008). While these models have demonstrated predictive validity, they may insufficiently capture the relational and interactional dynamics through which mothers perceive literacy-related and socioemotional experiences as unfolding in everyday family life. Increasingly, scholars suggest that interaction quality, parental scaffolding, and emotionally responsive engagement may shape children’s learning experiences beyond material affordances alone (Neumann, 2020).

Parallel to this shift, research on playful learning has expanded significantly. Play is now conceptualized as a central developmental context associated with creativity, problem-solving, language development, self-regulation, and socioemotional growth (Zosh et al., 2018; Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2020). Playful learning frameworks emphasize that development occurs most robustly when children are actively engaged, socially interactive, meaningfully involved, and emotionally supported. Such conditions frequently occur within home environments during shared routines and informal play, yet qualitative accounts of how families enact these processes remain limited.

Contemporary discussions of school readiness often highlight tensions between early academic preparation and play-based learning, particularly in debates about how young children should be supported before formal schooling (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2009; Nicolopoulou, 2010). This tension underscores the importance of examining home contexts where academic and socioemotional processes may be naturally integrated through relational play-based interactions (Hassinger-Das et al., 2020).

In Saudi Arabia, early home learning often takes place within family-centered and linguistically rich environments in which oral interaction, religious routines, sibling participation, and extended-family relationships may shape children’s everyday experiences. Within this context, young children’s early literacy learning spaces are shaped by mothers’ perspectives, the physical home environment, family routines, household resources, entertainment practices, and parent–child literacy interactions (Alsubaie, 2022). At the same time, contemporary Saudi households vary in parental education, employment patterns, digital-media access, and exposure to different literacy resources, making Saudi mothers’ accounts a valuable site for examining how home learning is perceived within culturally situated family life.

Saudi-specific research on young children’s play within the home remains limited. Within Saudi homes, everyday family routines may provide opportunities for reading, storytelling, parent–child interaction, household resources, entertainment practices, and other forms of literacy-related engagement (Alsubaie, 2022). Because empirical work on adults’ perceptions of play in Saudi homes remains limited, mothers’ qualitative accounts provide an important starting point for examining how play is understood alongside reading, storytelling, discipline, emotional support, and school readiness.

Responding to calls for culturally situated and sociocultural research on development (Rogoff, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978), the present study examines how Saudi mothers describe play-based home learning experiences and how they perceive these experiences as involving literacy-related and socioemotional dimensions. The purpose of this study is to explore how Saudi mothers describe and interpret early home learning experiences involving play, literacy-related practices, socioemotional experiences, and everyday relational interaction. The study focuses on mothers’ accounts rather than direct observations or assessments of children’s development. Accordingly, the study asks:

How do Saudi mothers describe the relationships among play, literacy-related practices, socioemotional experiences, and relational interaction in early home learning?

The following sub-questions guided the analysis:

• How do mothers describe play-based and routine-based interactions in relation to early literacy experiences?
• How do mothers narrate children’s confidence, motivation, emotional regulation, and relational engagement within these interactions?
• How do mothers perceive contextual conditions, such as maternal education, time, space, and material resources, as shaping home learning opportunities?

The present study does not seek to measure children’s developmental change directly or to establish causal relations among play, literacy, and socioemotional development. Rather, it examines how mothers describe and interpret these domains within everyday home interactions. The unit of analysis is therefore mothers’ narratives and perceptions, not independently observed child outcomes.

2. Theoretical Framework: Sociocultural and Constructivist Perspectives on Home Learning

2.1. Sociocultural Mediation and Guided Participation

This study is primarily informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and social constructivist perspectives on learning. From this perspective, children’s learning is mediated through language, interaction, cultural tools, and guided participation with more knowledgeable others (Vygotsky, 1978; Rogoff, 1990, 2003). Concepts such as scaffolding, shared meaning-making, symbolic play, and culturally situated interaction are particularly relevant to the present study because the analysis focuses on how mothers describe everyday learning as occurring through dialogue, play, storytelling, shared reading, sibling interaction, and routine-based participation (Wood et al., 1976; Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978).

In this view, home learning is not treated simply as exposure to literacy materials, but as a socially mediated process in which children participate in culturally meaningful activities with caregivers and siblings. Mothers’ narratives are therefore examined as accounts of how learning opportunities are embedded in relational interaction and everyday family practices (Rogoff, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991).

Research on self-regulation further reinforces this relational perspective. Executive function and regulatory capacities are understood to develop within contexts of guided participation and emotionally supportive scaffolding (McClelland et al., 2007). Blair et al. (2022) reported that components of regulation are significantly associated with academic achievement, suggesting that learning is embedded within affective and motivational systems rather than isolated cognitive mechanisms. From this perspective, self-regulation is not treated as an isolated child attribute, but as a capacity shaped through repeated, emotionally supported proximal interactions.

2.2. Play as a Socioculturally Mediated Context for Home Learning

Within sociocultural and playful learning perspectives, play is understood as a culturally and socially mediated context in which children may use language, roles, symbols, objects, and rules to participate in shared meaning-making (Vygotsky, 1978; Rogoff, 2003; Zosh et al., 2018). Playful learning frameworks suggest that play can create opportunities for children’s cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic engagement when activities are meaningful, socially interactive, iterative, joyful, and actively engaging (Zosh et al., 2018; Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2020). In the present study, however, play is examined not as an independently observed developmental mechanism, but as a context that mothers described as meaningful for children’s literacy-related and socioemotional experiences.

Through symbolic play, narrative co-construction, and shared routines, mothers may describe children as engaging in language use, perspective-taking, role negotiation, symbolic representation, and emotion regulation. These interactional experiences may occur within emotionally supportive relationships in which caregivers provide prompts, encouragement, shared attention, and scaffolding. Prior research has suggested that guided play and caregiver-supported interaction can provide rich opportunities for language use, exploration, and early learning, particularly when adults support children’s agency rather than replacing it with direct instruction (Hassinger-Das et al., 2020; Weisberg et al., 2016; Zosh et al., 2018).

Empirical research provides a useful background for interpreting mothers’ accounts, but the present study does not test developmental effects directly. Longitudinal studies have reported associations between language and socioemotional development, suggesting that these domains may be related over time (Rose et al., 2018). Research on home literacy and play-based interaction also indicates that caregiver scaffolding, shared attention, and responsive engagement may be associated with children’s vocabulary, emergent literacy, and self-regulatory skills (Neumann, 2020; Montroy et al., 2016). In this study, such literature is used as a sensitizing framework for interpreting how mothers narrated play-based interaction, rather than as evidence that the present data demonstrate developmental change.

Together, these perspectives suggest that play-based interaction may be a meaningful relational context in which mothers perceive literacy-related and socioemotional experiences as connected. Therefore, this study does not claim that domains of development become interconnected through play. Instead, it examines how mothers described play, shared routines, storytelling, and caregiver-child interaction as contexts in which children appeared to use language, express emotions, show confidence, negotiate roles, and participate in family learning experiences.

2.3. Home Literacy Practices as Relational Interaction

Home literacy practices include shared reading, storytelling, print-related activities, oral language interaction, and everyday uses of language and text. Shared reading should not be understood only as meaning-making; it may also include code-related attention, such as letter naming, sound awareness, print concepts, and early decoding practices (Curenton & Justice, 2008). Therefore, the present study examines shared reading and other literacy-related activities as relational practices that may include both meaning-related and code-related dimensions.

The Home Literacy Model (HLM) distinguishes between meaning-related and code-related literacy activities (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Silinskas et al., 2020). Meaning-related activities (e.g., shared storybook reading) are typically associated with reading development through language growth, whereas code-related activities, such as explicit letter instruction, are linked to early literacy skills (Krijnen et al., 2020; Silinskas et al., 2020).

However, emerging research suggests that parental beliefs, engagement quality, and relational practices are described as shaping the association between resources and outcomes (Niklas et al., 2020; Stephenson et al., 2008; Niklas & Schneider, 2017). Moreover, some scholars argued that the home literacy environment may function as a correlate rather than a direct cause of literacy variation (Puglisi et al., 2017), underscoring the need to examine underlying interactional mechanisms.

Accordingly, as shown in Table 1 the present study builds on the HLM by incorporating relational and play-based processes into the conceptualization of home learning, placing greater emphasis on interactional dynamics alongside frequency and material resources.

Table 1. Theoretical Integration Informing the Present Study.

Theoretical Lens	Core Assumption	Relevance to Present Study
Sociocultural Theory	Learning is mediated through language, interaction, and cultural tools	Frames mothers’ descriptions of shared reading, storytelling, play, and routines as socially mediated experiences
Social Constructivism	Meaning is constructed through interaction	Supports the study’s focus on mothers’ narratives and relational meaning-making
Playful Learning	Play may provide opportunities for engagement, symbolic representation, and social interaction	Helps interpret why mothers described play as meaningful for literacy-related and socioemotional experiences
Home Literacy Practices	Literacy experiences occur through reading, storytelling, print exposure, and oral language	Supports analysis of both meaning-related and code-related literacy practices
Self-Regulation Research	Emotional regulation and engagement are related to early learning	Provides sensitizing concepts for mothers’ descriptions of confidence, persistence, and regulation

Taken together, these theoretical strands inform the analytic lens adopted in the present study, positioning home learning as a relational and play-mediated context in which mothers may perceive literacy-related and socioemotional experiences as interconnected.

3. Rationale and Purpose of the Study

Although substantial research has examined home literacy environments and socioemotional development, these domains are frequently examined separately, with less attention to how caregivers may narratively link them within everyday interaction. Traditional models of the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) emphasize the frequency of shared reading, access to print materials, and instructional practices as predictors of academic outcomes (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002). While these models demonstrate robust associations with literacy development, they often foreground structural inputs and activity frequency, with less attention to the relational and affective processes through which development is experienced and described.

Emerging evidence indicates that literacy-related and socioemotional experiences are deeply interconnected in early childhood (Denham et al., 2014; Blair & Raver, 2015). However, limited qualitative research has explored how caregivers describe these domains as connected within everyday family interactions, particularly in non-Western contexts. By focusing on Saudi mothers’ perspectives, the present study responds to calls for culturally grounded developmental research (Rogoff, 2003) and extends existing models by foregrounding relational and play-mediated processes.

The study therefore aims to explore how mothers describe play-based home learning experiences and how these interactions are perceived as involving literacy-related and socioemotional experiences. Specifically, it examines how everyday shared practices—such as reading, symbolic play, routines, and sibling interactions—were described by mothers as contexts in which literacy-related and socioemotional experiences appeared connected, and how contextual conditions were perceived as shaping these opportunities through relational quality and interactional opportunities.

4. Materials and Methods

This study employed a qualitative exploratory design grounded in a constructivist epistemological perspective, which assumes that meaning is co-constructed through social interaction and lived experience (Creswell & Poth, 2018). A qualitative approach was selected because it enables in-depth examination of relational processes and contextual dynamics that are not easily captured through quantitative measures. Given the study’s focus on everyday interactional experiences within families, semi-structured interviews were deemed most appropriate, as they allowed for both conceptual guidance and flexibility to pursue emergent themes (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). Because the study is based on interviews only, the findings are interpreted as mothers’ perceptions and narrative constructions rather than as direct evidence of children’s developmental outcomes.

4.1. Participants

Fifteen mothers residing in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia participated in the study. Participants were recruited using purposeful sampling to ensure variation in maternal educational background, employment status, age, marital status, and living environment (Patton, 2015). Maternal education was retained as the main descriptive indicator of participants’ educational background. Self-reported income categories were not included in the sample profile or analysis because they were not based on objective or operationally defined thresholds. Each mother was asked to focus on one child aged 3–6 during the interview. Each participating mother discussed experiences with one focal child within this age range. Although interviews focused on one focal child aged 3–6, mothers sometimes referred to siblings when describing everyday home interactions. Participant characteristics are summarized in Table 2. Ethical procedures were strictly followed, including informed consent, confidentiality assurances, and the use of pseudonyms to protect participants’ identities.

Table 2. Sample profile (n = 15).

Characteristics	n	%
Educational level
Higher degrees	2	13.33
Bachelor’s degree	9	60.00
High school diploma	4	26.66
Job status
Employed	7	46.66
Not employed (homemakers)	8	53.33
Age
25–35	6	40.00
36–45	6	40.00
46–55	3	20.00
Marital status
Married	13	86.66
Divorced	2	13.33
Living environment
Urban	14	93.33
Rural	1	6.66
Native language
Arabic	15	100.00

Note. Maternal education is reported as the main descriptive indicator of participants’ educational background. Income categories are not reported because they were not based on objective or operationally defined thresholds.

Participants were recruited through community and social-network channels in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Recruitment information was shared through mothers’ community networks and early-childhood-related contacts. Interested mothers contacted the researcher directly and were provided with information about the study aims, voluntary participation, confidentiality, and interview procedures.

Eligibility criteria required that participants were mothers residing in Saudi Arabia, had at least one child aged 3–6 years, spoke Arabic, and were willing to participate in an audio-recorded interview. Mothers were excluded if their focal child was outside the target age range or if they were unable to participate in an Arabic interview. No fathers, grandparents, or siblings were interviewed; therefore, the findings represent mothers’ perspectives rather than whole-family accounts. Because recruitment occurred through community circulation of the invitation, the total number of mothers who viewed the invitation but chose not to respond is unknown.

The researcher did not have prior personal or professional relationships with the participants. Interested mothers contacted the researcher voluntarily after receiving the recruitment invitation.

4.2. Data Collection

After ethical approval was obtained from King Faisal University, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with mothers. The interview guide was designed to explore mothers’ descriptions of play, literacy-related practices, emotional and behavioral experiences, and daily routines. Interviews were conducted online using Zoom and lasted between 45 and 60 min. All interviews were conducted by the author in Arabic. Demographic information, including maternal education, employment status, marital status, living environment, and language background, was collected through a brief demographic form completed before the interview. Interview questions explored daily routines, play activities, literacy-related practices, the focal child’s emotional and behavioral development, as well as mothers’ perceptions of developmental changes. Interviews were audio-recorded with participants’ consent and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were reviewed multiple times to ensure accuracy and to facilitate immersion in the data. An interview guide was developed to ensure conceptual coverage while allowing flexibility for participants’ narratives. The interview guide included open-ended questions such as: “Can you describe a typical play interaction between you and your child?”, “How does your child usually engage with books or storytelling at home?”, “Have you noticed any changes in your child’s emotional or behavioral responses during shared activities?”, and “In what ways do daily routines involve learning or interaction?” Follow-up prompts were used to encourage elaboration and clarification.

4.3. Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019). This analytic approach was chosen for its theoretical flexibility and its capacity to generate interpretive patterns that extend beyond surface description. The analysis began with repeated readings of the transcripts to achieve familiarity with the data, accompanied by analytic memo writing to document preliminary reflections and emerging conceptual insights. Initial codes were generated inductively, focusing on segments of text that referenced play interactions, emotional exchanges, literacy practices, daily routines, and mothers’ descriptions of children’s learning and behavior. Coding was conducted systematically across the dataset, with attention to both explicit content and underlying relational processes. Consistent with reflexive thematic analysis, coding was not treated as a reliability exercise. The researcher revisited the transcripts over multiple analytic rounds to refine, challenge, merge, and reconceptualize codes and candidate themes. Changes across coding rounds were understood as part of deeper interpretive engagement with the data rather than as evidence of coding error or reliability. Analytic memos were used to document interpretive decisions, emerging assumptions, and shifts in theme construction.

The analysis was primarily inductive but theoretically sensitized. Initial coding remained close to participants’ accounts and focused on how mothers described everyday interactions, play, literacy-related practices, emotional responses, and family routines. At later stages, sociocultural concepts such as scaffolding, guided participation, symbolic mediation, and culturally situated interaction informed the interpretation and organization of themes.

Emphasis was placed on identifying how literacy-related indicators, such as vocabulary use, narrative skills, and emergent literacy practices, were described alongside socioemotional indicators such as self-regulation, confidence, persistence, motivation, empathy, relational closeness, and responses to caregiver or sibling support. Socioemotional indicators were coded when mothers described children’s emotional regulation, persistence, confidence, motivation, empathy, relational closeness, or responses to relational support during shared play, literacy activities, or daily routines. Narrative skills were defined as mothers’ descriptions of children’s ability to retell events, sequence story elements, use characters or roles in pretend play, ask or answer story-related questions, and connect stories to personal experiences.

In this study, “underlying relational processes” refers to interactional features mothers described as shaping children’s engagement during home learning activities. These included emotional warmth, responsiveness, turn-taking, encouragement, scaffolding, shared attention, conflict mediation, and the child’s willingness to participate in interaction. These processes were coded when mothers described not only what activity occurred, but how the interaction unfolded relationally.

Themes were reviewed and refined through iterative comparison with the original transcripts to ensure internal coherence and distinctiveness, consistent with the principles of thematic rigor described by Braun and Clarke (2006). The final stage involved conceptual abstraction, linking the identified themes to broader sensitizing concepts from sociocultural theory, including scaffolding, guided participation, symbolic mediation, and research on self-regulation and school readiness.

To enhance trustworthiness, the study incorporated prolonged engagement with the data, systematic memoing, and cross-case comparison to examine consistency and variation across families. Thick description was employed to provide sufficient contextual detail to support transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Additionally, reflexive awareness of the researcher’s interpretive role was maintained throughout the analytic process, acknowledging that themes are actively constructed rather than passively discovered (Braun & Clarke, 2019).

Through this analytic approach, the study generated an interpretive account of how mothers described play-based home learning experiences as relational contexts in which literacy-related and socioemotional experiences may be connected within everyday family life.

4.4. Language, Translation, and Analytic Process

All interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, and initially analyzed in Arabic, the participants’ native language. Coding and initial theme development were conducted in Arabic to preserve participants’ meanings and culturally specific expressions, consistent with recommendations for multilingual qualitative research that emphasize retaining the language of analysis for as long as possible when working across languages (Temple & Young, 2004; van Nes et al., 2010). Translation into English occurred after the main themes had been constructed. Only the excerpts selected for inclusion in the manuscript were translated into English.

The researcher translated the selected quotations with attention to conceptual equivalence rather than literal word-for-word correspondence. Culturally specific phrases were reviewed in context to preserve their intended meaning. Where Arabic expressions did not have direct English equivalents, the translation prioritized the meaning conveyed within the interactional context. Selected translated excerpts were reviewed again against the Arabic transcripts to ensure accuracy and consistency. No independent bilingual reviewer was involved in verifying the translated excerpts; this is acknowledged as a limitation. Translation is acknowledged as an interpretive process and is considered in the study limitations (Temple & Young, 2004; van Nes et al., 2010).

The sample size of 15 participants was considered adequate in relation to the study’s information power. Information power suggests that the more information the sample holds for the study aim, the fewer participants may be needed (Malterud et al., 2016). The study had a focused aim, a specific participant group, theoretically guided inquiry, rich interview dialogue, and an in-depth reflexive thematic analytic strategy. At the same time, because the study also develops a provisional interpretive framework, the sample size is acknowledged as more appropriate for generating hypotheses than for validating a model.

4.5. Researcher Positionality, Reflexivity, and Trustworthiness

The author conducted all interviews, coding, and theme development. The researcher shares linguistic and cultural familiarity with the Saudi context in which the study was conducted. This insider position supported rapport-building during interviews and facilitated interpretation of culturally embedded references to family routines, oral storytelling, caregiving expectations, and home learning practices. At the same time, this positioning may have shaped the assumptions brought to the study, including sensitivity to the value of relational interaction and culturally situated learning (Berger, 2015; Dwyer & Buckle, 2009).

The researcher’s academic background in early childhood education and literacy also informed the design of the interview guide and the interpretation of mothers’ accounts. Reflexive memos were used throughout the research process to examine how these assumptions influenced questioning, coding, and theme development. The study therefore treats the findings as interpretive constructions generated through interaction between participants’ narratives, the researcher’s analytic standpoint, and the theoretical concepts guiding the study (Braun & Clarke, 2019, 2021; Finlay, 2002).

To enhance trustworthiness, the researcher maintained an audit trail documenting recruitment decisions, interview procedures, coding reflections, theme development, and revisions to the analytic framework. Prolonged engagement with the transcripts, systematic memoing, and cross-case comparison were used to examine both convergence and variation across accounts (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Nowell et al., 2017). However, because the analysis was conducted by a single researcher, the possibility that interpretations were shaped by the researcher’s assumptions is acknowledged as a limitation.

5. Results

Across the 15 interviews, mothers frequently described home-based play, shared reading, storytelling, sibling interaction, and everyday routines as contexts in which literacy-related and socioemotional experiences appeared connected in their accounts. The findings are presented as mothers’ perceptions and interpretations rather than as direct evidence of children’s developmental change.

Participants often narrated academic and emotional experiences within the same shared relational exchanges.

Theme 1: Play-Based and Routine-Based Interaction as Perceived Contexts for Learning and Emotional Engagement

Most mothers (12 of 15) described play as a frequent context for language use, emotional expression, or shared engagement. In many accounts, mothers did not describe play as entirely separate from learning time. Rather, they often narrated play as one context in which children used language, roles, symbols, and emotional expressions.

Symbolic Play as a Narrated Context for Literacy-Related and Emotional Experiences

Mothers frequently described engagement in role-based play (e.g., teacher, doctor, shopkeeper). These episodes were described as associated with vocabulary growth, narrative elaboration, symbolic representation, empathy, and confidence.

One mother explained: “When she plays teacher, she starts writing letters on her small board and reads to her dolls. But she also tells them, ‘Don’t cry, I will help you.’ I can see she is learning letters and how to care for others.” (Participant 4)

This excerpt illustrates how mothers did not differentiate between academic skill acquisition and emotional reassurance within the same interactional episode.

Another reflected: “He pretends to read the newspaper like his father. He asks questions about the news and repeats words. But he also acts seriously like an adult. It builds his confidence.” (Participant 9)

Across accounts, symbolic play was described as an interactional context in which mothers perceived representational thinking, language use, and emotional rehearsal as occurring together.

Routine-Embedded Play and Emerging Self-Regulation

Mothers also described embedding playful interaction within daily routines such as cooking, organizing groceries, and preparing for prayer. Mothers described these contexts as involving both literacy-related practices and behavioral regulation. For example: “When we cook, I ask her to bring the ‘B’ for bread from the list. She feels proud. But she also waits for her turn and follows instructions.” (Participant 2)

Such episodes were described by mothers as involving categorization, vocabulary use, patience, turn-taking, and sustained attention. Rather than isolating academic tasks from emotional discipline, routine-based play appeared in mothers’ accounts as a context in which literacy-related practices and self-regulatory experiences occurred together.

Theme 2: Intentional and Spontaneous Learning in Mothers’ Narratives

All mothers described both structured and spontaneous learning contexts. However, mothers often described these contexts as overlapping in everyday practice, rather than as fully separate forms of home learning.

Shared Reading as Cognitive and Relational Ritual

Several mothers described consistent shared reading routines that functioned both as literacy instruction and emotional bonding time. For example, “ Every night we read one story. It’s our time. He asks questions, and I explain new words. But it’s also when he talks about his fears.” (Participant 1)

These routines were portrayed as accompanying vocabulary growth and curiosity while also being associated with emotional security and motivation.

Media and Sibling Interaction as Relational Learning Contexts

A smaller group of mothers (4 of 15) described children learning letters or vocabulary through media exposure. However, they emphasized that co-viewing and dialogic interaction were described as enhancing retention and engagement. For example, “If he watches alone, it’s just noise. But when we talk about it, he repeats the words later.” (Participant 14)

Similarly, sibling interaction was described as a context in which language exchange, negotiation, and persistence were observed. Another shared: “Her older brother corrects her pronunciation. Sometimes they fight, but she learns faster with him.” (Participant 5)

Across accounts, mothers described spontaneous contexts as more meaningful for learning when they were embedded within relational dialogue.

Variation and Complexity Across Accounts

Although many mothers linked learning with relational interaction, their accounts also showed variation. Some mothers described more direct academic instruction, particularly in relation to letter recognition, Quranic memorization, or school readiness tasks. In these cases, play was sometimes treated as secondary to structured practice. A few mothers also described tensions between encouraging learning and managing children’s frustration or resistance. Some children were described as losing interest when mothers turned play into explicit instruction.

Media use was similarly ambivalent. While co-viewing was described by some mothers as supporting vocabulary and discussion, others expressed concern that screen exposure reduced direct interaction or led to conflict over limits. Sibling interaction was also not uniformly supportive; although older siblings sometimes helped with pronunciation or storytelling, mothers also described competition, interruption, and conflict as limiting sustained engagement.

These variations suggest that the relationship between literacy-related practices, play, and socioemotional experience was not uniform. Rather, mothers’ accounts indicate that relational context shaped whether everyday activities were experienced as supportive, stressful, engaging, or contested.

Theme 3: Contextual Conditions as Perceived Resources and Constraints

Mothers frequently referenced maternal education, time, space, employment patterns, and access to books or digital resources. However, differences in mothers’ descriptions of home learning opportunities were framed primarily in terms of interaction patterns rather than material access alone. Some mothers linked educational background to structured literacy practices, while others emphasized oral storytelling traditions irrespective of formal education. For example: “I didn’t finish school, but my mother told us many stories, so I do the same.” (Participant 13)

Although some mothers reported limited access to books, dedicated learning spaces, or uninterrupted time, they often described rich verbal interaction and intergenerational engagement. Conversely, access to books or digital resources did not uniformly correspond with richer relational interaction in mothers’ accounts.

These findings suggest that contextual conditions were described as shaping opportunities and constraints, but repeated responsive interaction appeared in participants’ accounts as central to how children’s home learning experiences were described.

Across the three themes as shown in Table 3, a broader interpretive pattern was evident: mothers often narrated literacy-related engagement, confidence, emotional security, and participation within the same episodes of family interaction. This pattern does not demonstrate developmental reciprocity, but it suggests that mothers perceived these experiences as connected in everyday home life. This cross-theme pattern informed the provisional interpretive framework presented in the Discussion.

Table 3. Patterns in Mothers’ Narratives of Relational Home Learning.

Context Described by Mothers	Interactional Practice	Relational Feature	Experiences Linked in Mothers’ Accounts
Shared reading	Story discussion and questions	Emotional warmth	Vocabulary, curiosity, closeness
Everyday routines	Playful prompts and instructions	Responsiveness	Categorization, patience, turn-taking
Sibling interaction	Correction and negotiation	Conflict mediation	Pronunciation, persistence, frustration
Media use	Co-viewing and discussion	Shared attention	Vocabulary repetition, engagement

6. Discussion

This study examined how Saudi mothers described play, literacy-related practices, socioemotional experiences, and everyday relational interaction within home learning. The findings do not demonstrate that literacy and socioemotional competencies co-developed in children. Rather, they show that mothers frequently narrated these experiences as connected within shared home interactions. The discussion therefore interprets mothers’ accounts as qualitative evidence of perceived associations, not as evidence of causal or longitudinal developmental pathways.

As shown in Table 4, the contribution of the present framework is therefore primarily empirical and culturally contextual, with a secondary conceptual integration. It is not proposed as a new explanatory theory or as a validated developmental mechanism.

Table 4. Positioning the Provisional Relational Home Learning Interpretive Framework in Relation to Existing Frameworks.

Existing Framework	Core Proposition	What It Already Explains	What the Present Framework Adds
Sociocultural theory	Learning is mediated through interaction, language, and cultural tools	Explains scaffolding, guided participation, and culturally situated learning	Applies these ideas to Saudi mothers’ narratives of home literacy, play, routines, and socioemotional experience
Home Literacy Model	Home literacy includes meaning-related and code-related activities	Explains links between shared reading, print activities, and emergent literacy	Highlights how mothers describe literacy practices as embedded in emotional warmth, responsiveness, and family routines
Playful learning frameworks	Play supports active, meaningful, socially interactive engagement	Explains play as a context for language, symbolic action, and engagement	Treats play as one context among broader responsive relational interactions, rather than the sole mechanism
Self-regulation research	Emotional and behavioral regulation are associated with early learning	Explains links among regulation, attention, persistence, and school readiness	Shows how mothers narrate regulation, confidence, persistence, and literacy-related participation within the same interactions
Saudi/Arabic home literacy research	Home learning is shaped by language, family routines, religious and cultural practices, and access to literacy resources	Explains culturally specific features of Arabic/Saudi home literacy	Provides qualitative evidence from Saudi mothers in the Eastern Province and organizes their accounts into a provisional interpretive framework

Consistent with sociocultural and constructivist perspectives, mothers described everyday routines as socially mediated contexts in which children participated in shared reading, symbolic play, sibling interaction, and routine-based conversations. These everyday practices were described not merely as literacy activities, but as emotionally attuned relational exchanges. These findings align with prior research suggesting that the quality of interaction, rather than the presence of resources alone, is associated with variations in children’s learning experiences (Melhuish et al., 2008).

The results also align with playful learning frameworks (Zosh et al., 2018; Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2020), which conceptualize play as an integrative developmental context linking cognitive and socioemotional growth. In mothers’ accounts, symbolic play and narrative co-construction were described as contexts in which children used vocabulary, practiced perspective-taking, negotiated rules, and expressed or regulated emotions. Mothers described children as practicing emerging competencies within relationally secure environments, consistent with prior research demonstrating reciprocal associations between language and socioemotional development (Rose et al., 2018).

Importantly, the findings extend traditional Home Literacy Environment (HLE) models. While existing frameworks emphasize activity frequency and resource availability (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002), the present study highlights the interactional quality through which literacy-related practices unfold. Rather than conceptualizing meaning-related and code-related activities as isolated predictors of literacy outcomes, the findings suggest that their perceived significance was described as embedded within relational engagement and emotional attunement.

Across interviews, contextual factors such as maternal education, employment patterns, available time, space, and access to literacy resources appeared in mothers’ accounts as shaping the opportunities within which relational processes unfolded. This supports research suggesting that home environments function not solely as repositories of materials, but as dynamic relational systems in which learning opportunities are shaped through interaction (Niklas et al., 2020).

Rather than positioning academic and socioemotional domains as parallel strands, the findings suggest a pattern of perceived association within participants’ accounts: emotionally secure interaction was described as accompanying increased literacy engagement, while mothers sometimes described greater literacy-related participation as coinciding with confidence and relational engagement.

Across interviews, mothers’ accounts suggested a tentative association among perceived confidence, engagement, and literacy-related participation. Increased literacy engagement was often described as coinciding with greater confidence and relational participation, which mothers sometimes associated with further engagement in shared interactions. While relational and playful learning frameworks have been examined extensively, the provisional interpretive framework developed in this study organizes contextual conditions, relational mediation, and hypothesized connections into a layered analytic structure. Its contribution lies not in proposing entirely new developmental constructs, but in organizing existing constructs into a culturally situated, process-oriented interpretation grounded in mothers’ accounts of everyday home interactions. Taken together, these patterns suggest that early home learning may be understood, within mothers’ accounts, as a layered relational system in which contextual affordances shape perceived child experiences through relational processes. Rather than positioning the framework as a replacement for existing models, the present analysis offers a process-oriented interpretation that clarifies how interactional density, emotional attunement, and play-based exchanges may help explain how context and perceived child experiences were described as interconnected.

The model below synthesizes these interpretive insights into a conceptual architecture grounded in participants’ accounts. To clarify how this abstraction was derived from the empirical material, the construction of the framework is briefly outlined below.

The framework was constructed through iterative abstraction across the three themes identified in the analysis. Specifically, Theme 1 informed the conceptualization of play-based and routine-based interaction as perceived contexts for learning and emotional engagement. Theme 2 contributed to the articulation of intentional and spontaneous learning as part of a continuum of home interaction. Theme 3 informed the contextual conditions layer of the framework by showing how mothers described maternal education, time, space, employment patterns, and access to literacy resources as perceived resources and constraints. The hypothesized connections in the framework emerged from cross-theme examination of narrative episodes in which mothers described literacy-related engagement, confidence, motivation, emotional security, and participation as occurring together. Thus, each component of the framework reflects patterned meanings constructed from participants’ accounts rather than externally imposed theoretical categories.

A Provisional Relational Home Learning Interpretive Framework

Building on the thematic analysis, this section presents a provisional interpretive framework that synthesizes how mothers described play-based home learning as a relational context for children’s literacy-related and socioemotional experiences. Rather than treating literacy practices and socioemotional experiences as separate domains, the framework organizes the perceived connections among family and educational background, everyday interactional opportunities, relational qualities, and mothers’ descriptions of children’s learning behaviors, engagement, confidence, self-regulation, and emergent literacy practices.

The framework presented below in Table 5 is derived from mothers’ narratives and should not be interpreted as a validated developmental model, a causal pathway, or evidence of temporal reciprocity. Rather, it offers an analytic organization of how mothers described relationships among family and educational background, interactional contexts, relational qualities, and perceived child experiences in everyday home learning. The framework is therefore hypothesis-generating and requires future observational, longitudinal, and multi-informant research.

Table 5. A Provisional Relational Home Learning Interpretive Framework.

Layer	Components in Mothers’ Accounts	Interpretive Role
Contextual Conditions	Maternal education, employment patterns, time, space, books, digital access	Described by mothers as shaping available opportunities and constraints
Interactional Contexts	Shared reading, play, storytelling, routines, co-viewing, sibling interaction	Contexts in which mothers narrated literacy-related and socioemotional experiences
Relational Qualities	Warmth, responsiveness, scaffolding, shared attention, encouragement, conflict mediation	Features mothers associated with children’s engagement
Perceived Child Experiences	Vocabulary use, emergent reading, storytelling, confidence, motivation, persistence, regulation	Experiences mothers described as occurring within relational interaction
Hypothesized Connections	Confidence, engagement, and participation described as linked	Hypothesis-generating pattern requiring future observational or longitudinal study

The Provisional Relational Home Learning Interpretive Framework presents early home learning as a layered interpretation of mothers’ accounts, consistent with sociocultural perspectives on learning and development. At the contextual level, maternal education, employment patterns, available time, space, access to books, and digital resources were interpreted as shaping opportunity structures rather than directly determining perceived child experiences. Within mothers’ accounts, these contextual affordances appeared to shape the range and intensity of interactional opportunities available to children, including shared reading routines, symbolic play, routine-embedded collaboration, sibling interaction, and co-viewing media.

However, mothers’ accounts suggest that interactional opportunity alone was not perceived as sufficient; relational quality also shaped how home learning experiences were described. In this framework, relational quality is used as an analytic umbrella term rather than a measured construct. It refers to features mothers repeatedly described as shaping children’s participation, including warmth, responsiveness, shared attention, encouragement, scaffolding, and conflict mediation. Together, these features functioned in participants’ accounts as central relational conditions through which perceived child experiences were described. Within emotionally attuned and dialogic exchanges, mothers described literacy-related and socioemotional experiences as interconnected. Play-based proximal processes are conceptualized here as relational contexts in which mothers perceived literacy-related and socioemotional experiences as connected. Through symbolic representation, dialogic exchange, perspective-taking, and opportunities to practice behavioral regulation, children were described as using literacy-related skills and socioemotional capacities within the same interactions. These perceived experiences—including vocabulary use, emergent literacy behaviors, self-regulation, motivation, confidence, and empathy—were described as occurring together within shared interactions rather than as clearly sequential processes. Finally, the framework identifies a hypothesis-generating pattern in which mothers sometimes described confidence, engagement, and literacy-related participation as occurring together. Because the study was cross-sectional and interview-based, this pattern should not be interpreted as recursive, causal, or developmental. Rather, it reflects a perceived association in mothers’ narratives that future longitudinal and observational studies may examine.

7. Implications

Given the qualitative and interpretive nature of the study, the implications should be understood as tentative directions for future research and practice rather than as direct policy recommendations. The findings suggest that future family-literacy and early-childhood programs in Saudi Arabia may benefit from examining how caregivers integrate literacy-related interaction with emotional support, storytelling, play, and everyday routines.

Parent education initiatives could explore ways to support dialogic reading, oral storytelling, responsive conversation, and play-based engagement without assuming that learning depends only on material resources. The findings also suggest that future intervention research might examine whether supporting caregiver responsiveness and shared interaction enhances children’s engagement with literacy-related activities.

For researchers, the study highlights the value of integrated qualitative approaches that examine how caregivers narrate literacy, emotion, motivation, and family routines together. Future studies should include observations, fathers’ and grandparents’ perspectives, child-level assessments, and longitudinal designs to examine whether the perceived connections identified in this study correspond to observable developmental processes.

8. Limitations & Theoretical Boundaries

Several limitations should be noted. First, the study is based on cross-sectional interviews with 15 mothers from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The findings therefore represent mothers’ perceptions and narratives rather than direct evidence of children’s developmental change. No child assessments, home observations, father interviews, or longitudinal data were collected.

Second, because one mother was interviewed from each family, the findings cannot represent whole-family perspectives. Claims about siblings, fathers, grandparents, and family routines are based on mothers’ accounts only.

Third, the interview guide asked about play, literacy, emotional and behavioral development, and daily routines. This structure may have encouraged participants to narrate these domains together. Therefore, the study cannot conclude that mothers naturally conceptualized these domains as integrated outside the interview context.

Fourth, the author conducted the interviews, coding, and interpretation as the sole researcher. Although reflexive memoing and an audit trail were used, confirmation bias remains possible. Fifth, translation from Arabic to English was interpretive. Although translated excerpts were checked against the Arabic transcripts by the researcher, no independent bilingual reviewer verified the translations. Therefore, subtle cultural or linguistic nuances may have been affected during translation.

Finally, the sample included limited representation of rural mothers. In addition, self-reported income categories were removed from the analysis because they were not based on objective or operationally defined thresholds. Therefore, the study does not make claims about socioeconomic patterns. Contextual variation is interpreted only through available descriptive information, particularly maternal education, employment status, living environment, and mothers’ qualitative accounts of time, space, and access to literacy resources.

9. Conclusions

This study explored how Saudi mothers described early home learning experiences involving play, literacy-related practices, socioemotional experiences, and everyday family interaction. The findings indicate that mothers often narrated vocabulary use, emergent reading, storytelling, confidence, motivation, persistence, and emotional security within the same episodes of shared interaction. These findings should be interpreted as mothers’ perceptions and narrative constructions rather than as direct evidence of children’s developmental change.

The study contributes to early childhood research by foregrounding mothers’ accounts from a Saudi context that remains underrepresented in the literature. It also highlights the importance of examining home literacy practices not only as material resources or activity frequencies, but as relationally situated experiences shaped by responsiveness, shared attention, scaffolding, and family routines.

The provisional interpretive framework proposed in this study organizes mothers’ accounts of contextual conditions, interactional contexts, relational qualities, and perceived child experiences. It is intended to generate hypotheses for future research rather than to establish a validated developmental model. Future studies using observations, child assessments, longitudinal designs, and multiple family informants are needed to examine whether the perceived connections identified here correspond to observable developmental processes across diverse Saudi and non-Saudi contexts.