Interactive Robots as Facilitators of Childrens Social Development

Abstract

Background Social Development in ChildhoodChildren, especially those in the first year of life, develop the capability for social communication through physical and social interactions with their caregivers (e.g., mothers) and artefacts such as toys (Kaye, 1982; Trevarthen, 2001).Even neonates have various innate competencies to respond to and act on the environment, such as those for detecting and tracking human faces (Fantz, 1961;Morton & Johnson, 1991), mimicking orofacial actions, i.e., neonatal imitation (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977;Nadel & Butterworth, 1999), and recognizing the prosodic features of their mothers' voices (DeCasper & Fifer, 1980;Fernald, 1991).These competencies are, of course, the driving force for them to interact with the environment; however, to be socially meaningful, a child's acts have to be responded to, guided, and given social functions by adults (especially, caregivers).Let us briefly look at how social development is initiated and maintained in a supportive environment during the first year of life.• Under three months of age:The child establishes eye-contact with the caregiver along with exchanges of voice and/or facial expressions in the form of rhythmic turn-taking.The temporal structure mainly originates from the caregiver's reading of the child's response pattern.(Fig. 1, left.)• Three to nine months of age:The caregiver interprets and actively reponds to the child's mental states, such as desire and pleasure or displeasure.Although it is still asymmetric, their interaction seems socially meaningful.The child gradually learns to predict the caregiver's behavior, which makes the interaction more symmetric.(Fig. 1, middle.

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