Using robotic toys in early childhood education to support children’s social and emotional competencies

Sarika Kewalramani; Ioanna Palaiologou; Maria  Dardanou; Kelly-Ann Allen; Sivanes Phillipson

doi:10.1177/18369391211056668

Using robotic toys in early childhood education to support children’s social and emotional competencies

Sarika Kewalramani
, Ioanna Palaiologou
, Maria Dardanou
, Kelly-Ann Allen
, Sivanes Phillipson

School of Education

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of ‘emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 intentionally used robotic toys to engage their children with additional diverse needs in home-based play experiences. The data from both parents’ and children’s (n = 5) Zoom interviews, digital observations and children’s drawings demonstrated how children creatively conversed with their AI robots in innovative and empathy-based dialogues that generated happy feelings and a sense of ‘imaginary’ togetherness with their robot during the coding experiences. This study contributes to research by exploring the use of AI robotic toys together with physical and artificial environments and offers a case to build children’s emotional capital in enabling children’s social-emotional literacies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	355-369
Number of pages	15
Journal	Australian Journal of Early Childhood
Volume	46
Issue number	4
Early online date	1 Nov 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391211056668
Publication status	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research received funding from Monash University’s Early Years Academic Community for data collection.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education

Keywords

play with social robotic toys
digital technologies in early childhood education
children with diverse additional needs
child social emotional development

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10.1177/18369391211056668

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abstract = "This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of {\textquoteleft}emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 intentionally used robotic toys to engage their children with additional diverse needs in home-based play experiences. The data from both parents{\textquoteright} and children{\textquoteright}s (n = 5) Zoom interviews, digital observations and children{\textquoteright}s drawings demonstrated how children creatively conversed with their AI robots in innovative and empathy-based dialogues that generated happy feelings and a sense of {\textquoteleft}imaginary{\textquoteright} togetherness with their robot during the coding experiences. This study contributes to research by exploring the use of AI robotic toys together with physical and artificial environments and offers a case to build children{\textquoteright}s emotional capital in enabling children{\textquoteright}s social-emotional literacies.",

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author = "Sarika Kewalramani and Ioanna Palaiologou and Maria Dardanou and Kelly-Ann Allen and Sivanes Phillipson",

note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research received funding from Monash University{\textquoteright}s Early Years Academic Community for data collection. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2021.",

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AU - Allen, Kelly-Ann

AU - Phillipson, Sivanes

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research received funding from Monash University’s Early Years Academic Community for data collection. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

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AB - This Australian study examines whether and how technologies such as Artificially Intelligent (AI) toys in a home-based setting might socially and emotionally support children with diverse needs through play. Building on the concept of ‘emotional capital', and employing a design-based research approach, parents during the COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 intentionally used robotic toys to engage their children with additional diverse needs in home-based play experiences. The data from both parents’ and children’s (n = 5) Zoom interviews, digital observations and children’s drawings demonstrated how children creatively conversed with their AI robots in innovative and empathy-based dialogues that generated happy feelings and a sense of ‘imaginary’ togetherness with their robot during the coding experiences. This study contributes to research by exploring the use of AI robotic toys together with physical and artificial environments and offers a case to build children’s emotional capital in enabling children’s social-emotional literacies.

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Using robotic toys in early childhood education to support children’s social and emotional competencies

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

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