A robot in a playroom with preschool children: Longitudinal field practice

Abstract

We present here a progress report of our ongoing observation [2] of a group of preschoolers at three to four years of age interacting with an interactive robot. We placed the robot in their playroom and tele-controlled it from a remote room. The children showed not only individual actions, such as approach to, exploration of, and interaction with the robot, but also collective social actions, where the children spontaneously and actively situate the robot in their circle of, for example, playing house. We assume that the robot's simple appearance and comprehensive behavior derived (1) caretaking behavior from the children and (2) exchanging of such behavior among children, both of which would be important in the development of interpersonal communication and in pedagogical interventions to it.