Staying engaged in child-robot interaction:A quantitative approach to studying preschoolers’ engagement with robots and tasks during second-language tutoring

Inleiding Covid-19 heeft laten zien dat onze traditionele manier van lesgeven steeds meer afhankelijk is van digitale hulpmiddelen. In de afgelopen jaren (2020-2021) hebben leerkrachten kinderen online les moeten geven en hebben ouders hun kinderen moeten begeleiden bij hun lesactiviteiten. Digitale instrumenten die het onderwijs kunnen ondersteunen zoals sociale robots, zouden uiterst nuttig zijn geweest voor leerkrachten. Robots die, in tegenstelling tot tablets, hun lichaam kunnen gebruiken om zich vergelijkbaar te gedragen als leerkrachten. Bijvoorbeeld door te gebaren tijdens het praten, waardoor kinderen zich beter kunnen concentreren wat een voordeel oplevert voor hun leerprestaties. Bovendien stellen robots, meer dan tablets, kinderen in staat tot een sociale interactie, wat vooral belangrijk is bij het leren van een tweede taal (L2). Hierover ging mijn promotietraject wat onderdeel was van het Horizon 2020 L2TOR project1, waarin zes verschillende universiteiten en twee bedrijven samenwerkten en onderzochten of een robot aan kleuters woorden uit een tweede taal kon leren. Een van de belangrijkste vragen in dit project was hoe we gedrag van de robot konden ontwikkelen dat kinderen betrokken (engaged) houdt. Betrokkenheid van kinderen is belangrijk zodat zij tijdens langere tijdsperiodes met de robot aan de slag willen. Om deze vraag te beantwoorden, heb ik meerdere studies uitgevoerd om het effect van de robot op de betrokkenheid van kinderen met de robot te onderzoeken, alsmede onderzoek te doen naar de perceptie die de kinderen van de robot hadden. 1Het L2TOR project leverde een grote bijdrage binnen het mens-robot interactie veld in de beweging richting publieke wetenschap. Alle L2TOR publicaties, de project deliverables, broncode en data zijn openbaar gemaakt via de website www.l2tor.eu en via www.github.nl/l2tor en de meeste studies werden vooraf geregistreerd

Higher Education Course Curriculum for a Distance Learning Model Reinforced with Robotics for 3 to7 Years Old Children

The curriculum is organized in five different modules, with different focus. The first module is about Basic Concepts of Computational Thinking, presenting the foundations for the rest of the learning. The second module, on Computational Thinking with Block-Based and Text-Based Coding Environments, and the third module, on the Fundamentals of Physical Programming and CT with Robotic Activities, further expand the learning about computational thinking by providing information on the potential of preschool children for computational thinking and how this can be developed through different environments and tools. The fourth module changes the focus to planning and evaluating activities with children by presenting information on Designing Activities and Learning through Distance Education. This is the module that deals with the challenges and potential of distance education in Early Childhood Education, connecting practice with reflection and further learning for educators through self-evaluation and reflection. Finally, the fifth module, on Building Partnerships for Learning, looks at the development of digital skills for early age as a societal endeavour, supporting practitioners in identifying partners and initiatives as well as building communities that can leverage the educational offer. The whole curriculum was planned to provide knowledge and competences that support the development of a distance learning model reinforced with robotics for 3-7 years old children. But each module is a stand-alone learning opportunity based on the lesson plans, slides presentation and materials available. Interested users are also welcome to combine different modules into unique training experiences.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Emotions and behaviors of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers in two emotionally challenging tasks

2013 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.As children develop during early childhood, they are expected to internalize and follow social rules, so as to interact with people and the larger society in emotionally and behaviorally appropriate ways. But societal expectations and corresponding emotional and behavioral responses of individuals are all embedded in the sociocultural context (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Americans typically are more emotionally expressive than Chinese even in early childhood (Camras, et al., 2007; Tardif, Wang, & Olson, 2009). Emotional expression disrupts social harmony and is discouraged in Chinese children, but indicates individuality and is more accepted in American children. In more individualistic cultures such as the U.S., which emphasize autonomy and self-agency, one might be expected to direct behaviors outward to actively change the context to be less distressing; in collectivistic cultures like China, one might be more inclined to modify the self to feel or appear less distressed instead (Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Still, contextual demands may affect these patterns, particularly if appropriate behavior in the contexts is highly socialized, such that children may anticipate strong negative consequences for misbehavior. In this study, the emotional and behavioral responses of Chinese and American preschoolers were compared in two emotionally challenging situations that are important contexts for socialization--resistance to temptation and "breaking" someone's toy. Thirty-four Chinese (17 females) and 37 American (19 females) 3-3.5 year olds were observed across 5 episodes: 1. Introduction to a temptation toy, 2. Resistance to temptation; 3. Introduction to a clown doll; 4. Solitary play with the clown doll; 5. Period after child "breaks" clown doll (standard violation). Children's emotional and behavioral responses were coded second by second and the data were analyzed with repeated measures MANCOVAs. Emotionally, American children were found to be more expressive of happiness and sadness than Chinese children. Chinese children's anger responses showed a cumulative pattern across contexts. Except for the impact on Chinese children's anger, the contextual changes generated children's emotional responses in the expected direction, in that pleasant contexts generated more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions, whereas challenging contexts generated more negative emotions and fewer positive emotions. Behaviorally, American children were found to display more context-directed distraction behaviors than Chinese children; whereas Chinese children displayed more emotion-focused self-modification behaviors, including focal avoidance and self-soothing. Distraction behaviors of children from both samples varied according to contextual changes: most distraction in resistance to temptation, least distraction during play session, and slight increase in distraction during standard violation. But variation in American children's distraction across contexts was greater than that of the Chinese children. By taking a culture-specific, context-specific, and process-oriented approach, the study found evidence for cross-culture, cross-context, and cross-time variations in American and Chinese young children's emotional and behavioral responses toward social challenges. Results highlight the importance of considering children's culture, the immediate and preceding contexts, and time course since challenging events occurred when interpreting and responding to young children's behavior in order to more effectively promote positive development in those children

The Relationship between a Norm Referenced Measure of Theory of Mind and Preschoolers\u27 Social Skills in the Classroom

This study sought to examine the effect of Theory of Mind (ToM) performance as measured by a norm-referenced assessment on the social skills of a multicultural group of preschool students. This study extends the current research in this area. Most previous studies examined the relationship among ToM, other social cognitive skills and social skills using participants from predominately Caucasian middle class families (Slaughter et al., 2015). Additionally, earlier research relied primarily on homemade measures of such skills (Cassidy et al., 2003; Disendruck & Ben-Eliyahu, 2006; McAlister & Peterson, 2013; Watson et al., 1999; Walker, 2005). Participants included 67 children between 39 and 50 months of age enrolled in publicly funded preschool programs. Assessment using the NEPSY-II (Korkman, Kirk & Kemp, 2007) determined participants ToM and AR skills. Social skills were assessed through behavior observation and teacher report. Study findings indicate that demographic variables play a role in how teachers rate student both pro-social and anti-social behaviors. NEPSY-II reliability coefficients this sample were extremely low and the validity of the measure is discussed (van de Vijver & Leung, 1997). Qualitative analysis of the NEPSY-II ToM scale is presented and possible explanations for low Coefficient alpha are discussed

Using augmented reality with speech input for non-native children's language learning

Augmented Reality (AR) offers an enhanced learning environment which could potentially influence children's experience and knowledge gain during the language learning process. Teaching English or other foreign languages to children with different native language can be difficult and requires an effective strategy to avoid boredom and detachment from the learning activities. With the growing numbers of AR education applications and the increasing pervasiveness of speech recognition, we are keen to understand how these technologies benefit non-native young children in learning English. In this paper, we explore children's experience in terms of knowledge gain and enjoyment when learning through a combination of AR and speech recognition technologies. We developed a prototype AR interface called TeachAR, and ran two experiments to investigate how effective the combination of AR and speech recognition was towards the learning of 1) English terms for color and shapes, and 2) English words for spatial relationships. We found encouraging results by creating a novel teaching strategy using these two technologies, not only in terms of increase in knowledge gain and enjoyment when compared with traditional strategy but also enables young children to finish the certain task faster and easier

User-defined multimodal interaction to enhance children's number learning

Children today are already exposed to the new technology and have experienced excellent number learning applications at an early age. Despite that, most of the children's application softwares either fail to establish the interaction design or are not child-friendly. Involving children in the design phase of any children application is therefore essential as adults or developers do not know the children’s needs and requirements. In other words, designing children's computer applications adapted to the capabilities of children is an important part of today's software development methodology. The goal of this research is to propose a new interaction technique and usability that evaluates children learning performance of numbers. The new interaction technique is designed by participatory design in which children are involved in the design process. A VisionMath interface was implemented with the user-defined multimodal interaction dialogues which was proposed to evaluate the children’s learning ability and subjective satisfaction. An evaluation with 20 participants was conducted using usability testing methods. The result shows that there is a significant difference in the number learning performance between tactile interaction and multimodal interaction. This study reveals the proposed user-defined multimodal interaction dialogue was successful in providing a new interaction technique for children’s number learning by offering alternative input modality and potentially providing a rich field of research in the future

Language use between preschoolers, their families, and a social robot while sharing virtual toys

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-68).This thesis proposes an approach to language learning for preschool aged children using social robots as conversation partners within a shared play context for children and their families. It addresses an underserved age for language learning, where early learning can greatly impact later educational success, but that cannot benefit from text-based interventions. With the goal of establishing a shared physical context between multiple participants without absorbing all of the children's focus onto digital content, a hybrid physical and digital interface was iteratively designed and play-tested. This interface took the form of a "café table" on which the child and robot could share food. A robot was programmed to introduce itself and name foods in French, eat some foods and express dislike towards others, respond with distress to a new object, show its focus of attention through gaze, and in one experimental condition, express feedback about its comprehension when spoken to in French or English. The study found that some children as young as 3 years old would treat a social robot as an agent capable of understanding them and of perceiving a shared physical context, and would spontaneously modify their use of language and gesture in order to communicate with it - particularly when the robot communicated confusion. The study also found that parents tended to frame their scaffolding of the children's behavior with the robot in a social context, and without prompting aligned their guidance and reinforcement with language learning goals. After one exposure to the robot and new French vocabulary, children did not retain the robot's utterances, but engaged in communicative and social behaviors and language mimicry throughout the interaction. The system appeared to support multi-user social participation, including both caretakers and siblings of the participants.by Natalie Anne Freed.S.M

Das gemeinsame Lesen von Kinderbüchern und die Entwicklung frühkindlicher Sprachfähigkeiten

Storybooks and talk centered around shared reading contain more rare words, complex syntax, and narrative structures than the language that caregivers usually use when talking to children. Therefore, interactive storybook reading has the potential to facilitate children’s acquisition of lower level language (LLL) skills (e.g., vocabulary, grammar) and higher level language (HLL) skills (e.g., comprehension monitoring, narrative comprehension). This dissertation addresses gaps in shared storybook reading research pertaining to questions of assessment, intervention, and early literacy models. It investigates from a developmental and educational perspective how shared reading in the home literacy environment (HLE) and the child care literacy environment (CCLE) is related to children’s oral language skills. The first aim is to validate two recognition tests for German-speaking participants. This allows an objective and economic assessment of storybook exposure and adult literature exposure, both of which are related to children’s language development. The second aim is to clarify (a) the relation between parent and child as literacy agents in a home literacy model of shared reading, and (b) whether shared reading is related to children’s HLL skills besides being related to their LLL skills. The third aim is to test the effectiveness of a narrative dialogic reading intervention targeting LLL and HLL skills. To this end, four studies were conducted. Study 1 validated a storybook title recognition test (TRT) for German-speaking preschoolers and caregivers. The TRT captures relative differences in the amount of shared reading. In structural equation models, the TRT was a unique predictor of preschoolers’ language skills, explaining about 50% of variance in language skills. By contrast, questionnaire measures of socioeconomic status and home literacy environment did not explain additional variance in language skills. Study 2 validated an author recognition test (ART) for 13 to 80-year-old German-speaking readers. The ART is a measure of leisure reading that explains a substantial amount of variance in caregivers’ language skills, which is in turn related to children’s language development. Even though print exposure accumulates with time, several life span studies did not find a positive relation between reader age and ART scores. Study 2 used a sample of 13- to 77-year-old readers. The recognition probability of classic authors increased between ages 15 and 65. By contrast, the recognition probability of recent authors only increased between ages 15 and 45. The author mean publication year turned out to be a key variable for estimating print exposure in age-diverse samples. This author variable should be taken into account when modelling relationships between literacy environments and children’s language skills, especially if the age of caregivers varies (e.g., adolescent siblings, parents, grand-parents). Study 3 examined how HLE and CCLE are related to preschoolers’ storybook exposure and how the storybook exposure of preschoolers, parents, and child care workers is related to LLL and HLL skills. Parents’ exposure to storybooks was a unique predictor of children’s vocabulary and grammar skills. Parents’ storybook exposure was also moderately related to children’s storybook exposure, which in turn explained unique variance in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension monitoring, and narrative comprehension. Therefore, the storybook exposure of children and parents should be conceptualized as related, but separate variables in models of the home literacy environment. Moreover, models should differentiate between LLL and HLL skills as correlates and outcomes of shared reading. Study 4 developed a narrative dialogic reading intervention with wordless picture books that targeted preschoolers’ LLL and HLL skills. The intervention had small short-term effects on narrative comprehension and vocabulary skills. Comparisons with an alternative treatment and a no treatment group showed that the effects were due to the specific intervention contents. Individual differences in storybook exposure and general cognitive abilities did not moderate intervention gains. Children in control groups caught up after five months, with the exception of inferential narrative comprehension, where intervention effects were maintained at first follow-up. This indicates that narrative dialogic reading provided a unique opportunity to preschoolers for learning inferential narrative comprehension skills. In sum, this dissertation provides new methods and insights for the assessment of print exposure and shows that narrative dialogic reading fosters a broad range of oral language skills. Regarding the refinement of early literacy models, additional analyses showed that, above children’s and parents’ storybook exposure, the ART was a unique predictor of LLL skills. Parental leisure reading and shared storybook reading were connected to children’s oral language skills through multiple pathways that should be represented in early literacy models.Bilderbücher und Gespräche während dem Vorlesen enthalten mehr seltene Wörter, komplexe Syntax und narrative Strukturen als die gewöhnliche kindgerichtete Sprache von Eltern. Folglich kann das interaktive Vorlesen von Bilderbüchern zur Entwicklung von niedrigen Sprachfähigkeiten (z. B. Wortschatz, Grammatik) und höheren Sprachfähigkeiten (z. B. Überwachen von Verstehen, narratives Verstehen) beitragen. Diese Dissertation adressiert Lücken in der Vorlese-Forschung welche Fragen der Messung, Intervention und Modelle des frühen Schriftspracherwerbs betreffen. Aus entwicklungs- und pädagogisch-psychologischer Perspektive wird untersucht wie das Bilderbuchlesen in der häuslichen Leseumwelt und der Kita-Leseumwelt mit den Sprachfähigkeiten von Vorschulkindern zusammenhängt. Erstens sollen zwei Rekognitionstests für deutschsprachige Kinder und Vorlesende validiert werden. Hierdurch können Unterschiede im Lesevolumen hinsichtlich Bilderbüchern sowie Erwachsenenliteratur objektiv und ökonomisch erfasst werden. Beide stehen im Zusammenhang mit der kindlichen Sprachentwicklung. Zweitens soll geklärt werden, wie (a) Eltern und Kind als Handelnde im Vorleseprozess in der häuslichen Leseumwelt zueinander in Relation stehen und (b) ob das gemeinsame Lesen von Bilderbüchern neben niedrigen Sprachfähigkeiten auch mit höheren Sprachfähigkeiten zusammenhängt. Drittens soll überprüft werden, ob eine Sprachintervention zum narrativen dialogischen Lesen positive Effekte auf niedrige und höhere Sprachfähigkeiten hat. Zu diesem Zweck wurden vier Studien durchgeführt. Studie 1 validierte einen Bilderbuch-Titelrekognitionstest (TRT) für deutschsprachige Vorschulkinder und Vorlesende. Der TRT erfasst relative Unterschiede im Vorlesevolumen. In Strukturgleichungsmodellen klärte der TRT etwa 50% der Varianz in Sprachfähigkeiten auf, der sozioökonomische Status und die häusliche Leseumwelt klärten hier hingegen keine zusätzliche Varianz auf. Studie 2 validierte einen Autorenrekognitionstest (ART) für 13- bis 80-Jährige. Der ART misst das Leseverhalten in der Freizeit. Hierdurch kann ein substanzieller Anteil der Varianz in den Sprachfähigkeiten von Vorlesenden aufgeklärt werden. Die Sprachfähigkeiten von Vorlesenden hängen wiederum zusammen mit der kindlichen Sprachentwicklung. Das kumulative Lesevolumen wächst mit zunehmendem Alter. Mehrere Lebensspanne-Studien haben allerdings keinen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen Alter und ART-Score gefunden. Studie 2 untersuchte deshalb in einer Stichprobe von 13- bis 77-Jährigen wie das Lesevolumen zunimmt. Für bereits kanonisierte Autorinnen und Autoren stieg die Rekognitionswahrscheinlichkeit zwischen 15 und 65 Jahren an. Hingegen stieg die Rekognitionswahrscheinlichkeit für Gegenwartsautorinnen und -autoren nur zwischen 15 und 45 Jahren. Folglich ist das mittlere Publikationsjahr von Autorinnen und Autoren bedeutsam für die Schätzung des Lesevolumens in altersdiversen Stichproben. Diese Variable sollte bei der Modellierung von Leseumwelt-Einflüssen auf die kindliche Sprachentwicklung einbezogen werden – insbesondere dann, wenn unterschiedliche Generationen regelmäßig mit Kindern kommunizieren (z. B. Geschwister im Jugendalter, Eltern, Großeltern). Studie 3 untersuchte wie häusliche und Kita-Leseumwelt mit dem Vorlesevolumen von Vorschulkindern zusammenhängen und wie das Vorlesevolumen von Kindern, Eltern und Kita-Mitarbeitern zu niedrigen und höheren Sprachfähigkeiten beiträgt. Das Vorlesevolumen der Eltern erklärte einen uniquen Varianzanteil in Wortschatz und Grammatik der Kinder. Auch bestand zwischen Vorlesevolumen der Eltern und Vorlesevolumen der Kinder eine mittelstarke Korrelation. Das Vorlesevolumen der Kinder wiederum erklärte einen uniquen Varianzanteil in Wortschatz, Grammatik, Verstehensüberwachung und narrativem Verstehen. Folglich sollten die Vorlesevolumina von Kindern und Eltern in Modellen der häuslichen Leseumwelt als getrennte, aber in Verbindung stehende Variablen konzeptualisiert werden. Diese Modellen sollten zudem zwischen niedrigen und höheren Sprachfähigkeiten differenzieren. Studie 4 überprüfte die Effektivität einer neu entwickelten Intervention zum narrativen dialogischen Lesen in der Bilderbücher ohne Worte verwendet wurden. Die Intervention hatte kurzfristig kleine positive Effekte auf das narrative Verstehen und Wortschatzfähigkeiten. Die Interventionseffekte konnten durch Vergleiche mit der aktiven sowie der passiven Vergleichsgruppe auf die spezifischen Inhalte der Intervention zurückgeführt werden. Interindividuelle Unterschiede im Vorlesevolumen vor Interventionsbeginn sowie Unterschiede in den allgemeinen kognitiven Fähigkeiten hatten keinen Einfluss auf die Interventionseffekte. Die Kinder in den Vergleichsgruppen holten nach fünf Monaten in allen Sprachfähigkeiten auf. Nur hinsichtlich des inferenziellen narrativen Verstehens bestanden bei der ersten Folgeuntersuchung noch Gruppenunterschiede zugunsten der Intervention. Dies weist darauf hin, dass das dialogische Lesen spezielle Lerngelegenheiten für das inferenzielle narrative Verstehen bereit stellte. Insgesamt liefert diese Dissertation wichtige Erkenntnisse für die Erfassung des (Vor-)Lesevolumens und zur Effektivität des narrativen dialogischen Lesens. Hinsichtlich der Präzisierung eines Modells zum Einfluss des Vorlesens auf die Sprachentwicklung zeigten zusätzliche Analysen, dass der ART über den TRT hinaus zusätzlich Varianz in niedrigen Sprachfähigkeiten aufklärt. Offensichtlich bestehen mehrere Pfade von elterlichem Freizeitlesen und interaktivem Vorlesen zu den Sprachfähigkeiten von Kindern, welche entsprechend in Modellen zum Sprachenlernen durch Umwelteinflüsse repräsentiert sein sollten

Application Of Teach-Talk-Tool Module Mandarin Version On Teachers’ Language Interactive Strategies And The Language Outputs Of Students With ASD

Kajian ini bertujuan meninjau keberkesanan latihan dalaman perkhidmatan dengan menggunakan modul TEACH-TALK-TOOL (TTT) atas strategi interaksi bahasa guru dan penghasilan bahasa murid Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) This study was conducted to explore the effects of an in-service teacher training using the TEACH-TALK-TOOL (TTT) teacher teaching module on the language interactive strategies used by the teachers and the language production of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD

Gesture Recognition System Application to early childhood education

One of the most socially and culturally advantageous uses of human-computer interaction is enhancing playing and learning for children. In this study, gesture interactive game-based learning (GIGL) is tested to see if these kinds of applications are suitable to stimulate working memory (WM) and basic mathematical skills (BMS) in early childhood (5-6 years old) using a hand gesture recognition system. Hand gesture is being performed by the user and to control a computer system by that incoming information. We can conclude that the children who used GIGL technology showed a significant increase in their learning performance in WM and BMS, surpassing those who did normal school activities