A vast array of studies has demonstrated that stimulating activities within the family (e.g., reading
to child, singing together) positively affect children’s development in various domains. However,
this influence is less established for children of immigrants. This paper analyses the impact of
familial activities on non-verbal cognitive skills and German-language skills of six-year-old children
of Turkish immigrants in Germany. It is argued that not only the frequency of familial activities
but also the language use during these activities needs to be considered in immigrant families
which has rarely been done in the previous literature. Not taking into account the language use
during these activities might be especially problematic in the domain of verbal skills. The empirical
results show that the frequency of stimulating familial activities is positively associated with
children’s verbal and non-verbal skills. In contrast, the language use during these activities only
affects children’s language skills but not their non-verbal cognitive skills. It is concluded that the
language use during familial activities needs to be taken into account in the case of verbal skills.
