A Review on the Use of Robots in Education and Young Children

A systematic review was carried out to examine the use of robots in early childhood and lower level education. The paper synthesizes the findings of research studies carried out in the last ten years and looks at the influence of robots on children and education. Four major factors are examined-the type of studies conducted, the influence of robots on children's behaviour and development, the perception of stakeholders (parents, children and educators) on educational robots, and finally, the reaction of children on robot design or appearance. This review presents the approach taken by researchers in validating their use of robots including non-experimental (mixed-method, anecdotal, cross-sectional, longitudinal, correlational, and case studies) and quasi-experimental (pre- and post-test). The paper also shows that robot's influence on children's skills development could be grouped into four major categories: cognitive, conceptual, language and social (collaborative) skills. Mixed results are shown when it comes to parents' perception of the use of robots in their children's education while design was shown to influence children's perception of the robot's character or capabilities. A total of 27 out of 369 articles were reviewed based on several criteria.