A Multi-Modal Analysis: Young Children’s Spatial Skills While Using Educational Robots

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Abstract

Exploring young children’s spatial skills and spatial language when they engaged with educational robots, this study was guided by two research questions: (1) How do 5-year-old pre-school children’s spatial skills emerge when they engage with programmable robot toys? and (2) How do 5- year-old pre-school children use spatial vocabulary while interacting with programmable robot toys? Data were collected through video recordings of young children completing an 11-week robotics curriculum. These video recordings were analyzed through multimodal analysis. Findings showed that unplugged robotic activities that focus on different spatial concepts prepare preschool children for plugged-in activities more. This study also revealed that young children displayed distinctive spatial vocabulary whose complexity improved throughout the robotic activities.

Authors

• Simge Cicek, Bogazici University

• Duygu Umutlu, Bogazici University