Researchers at the University of Washington created a new web app, Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, aimed to help children develop skills like self-awareness and emotional management.
At first, some parents were wary: In a world of Siri and Alexa, they are skeptical that the makers of such technologies are putting children's welfare first.
In Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, a chatbot guided pairs of siblings through lessons. The UW team found that, after speaking with the app for a week, most children could explain the concept of supportive self-talk and apply it in their daily lives. And kids who'd engaged in negative self-talk before the study were able to turn that habit positive.
The UW team published its findings in June at the 2023 Interaction Design and Children conference. The app is still a prototype (雏形) and is not yet publicly available. Previous studies have shown children can learn various tasks and abilities from chatbots. Yet little research explores how chatbots can help kids effectively acquire socioemotional skills.
"There is room to design child-centric experiences with a chatbot that provide fun and educational practice opportunities," said senior author Alexis Hiniker, an associate professor in the UW Information School. "Over the last few decades, television programs like ‘Sesame Street,' ‘Mister Rogers,' and ‘Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' have shown that it is possible for TV to help kids cultivate socioemotional skills. We asked: Can we make a space where kids can practice these skills in an interactive app? We wanted to create something useful and fun— a ‘Sesame Street' experience for a smart speaker."
The length of these effects isn't clear, researchers note. The study spanned just one week and the tendency for survey participants to respond in ways that make them look good could lead kids to speak positively about the app's effects.
"Our goal is to make the app accessible to a wider audience in the future," said lead author Chris (Yue) Fu, a UW doctoral student in the iSchool. "We're exploring the integration of large language models — the systems that power tech like ChatGPT — into our prototype and we plan to work with content creators to adapt existing socioemotional learning materials into our system. The hope is that these will facilitate more prolonged and effective interventions."