Nils F. Tolksdorf
Papers
12
Total Citations
205
H-Index
8
About
Nils F. Tolksdorf is a prominent researcher at the intersection of child-robot interaction (cHRI), early childhood education, and social robotics. His work focuses on how social robots can support language learning and literacy development in young children, with a particular emphasis on kindergarten and preschool settings. Tolksdorf has made significant contributions to understanding how individual differences — most notably childhood shyness — shape the ways children engage with robotic learning partners, exploring dimensions ranging from verbal interaction and word learning to physical proxemics and social referencing behavior. Beyond empirical investigation, Tolksdorf has distinguished himself through rigorous ethical inquiry, most notably in his widely cited 2020 paper on macroperspective ethical considerations of robots in kindergarten settings (57 citations). His 2022 review of social robots' dialogical roles in literacy support (39 citations) has become an important reference point for researchers systematizing robotic applications in education. He has also amplified often-overlooked stakeholder perspectives, including parents' views on robot-assisted learning. With a growing body of work exceeding 200 cumulative citations, Tolksdorf's research is shaping how educators, technologists, and ethicists think about responsibly integrating social robots into the earliest stages of formal learning.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 5Parents’ Views on Using Social Robots for Language Learning16 citations · 2020
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- 7Beyond words8 citations · 2020
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