Evaluating the Correlation Between Social Robot NAO and Preschoolers' Socio-Emotional and Cognitive Skills

Abstract

Social-emotional skills, such as recognizing, under-standing, and regulating one's emotions and those of others, along with cognitive skills like working memory, phonological aware-ness, and grapheme-phoneme correspondence, are highly valued in developing cognitive, social, and emotional competencies. During the past 10 years, there has been an increasing interest in research on social robots as teaching assistants, peers, animators, or even teachers, as numerous studies have demonstrated their beneficial impact on student social skills. The physical design and advanced capabilities of humanoid robots like SoftBank Robotics' NAO demonstrate that they represent cutting-edge technology with a wide range of functionalities, enhancing the learning experience during Child-Robot Interaction (CRI). In this work, we have designed and implemented fourteen (14) educational applications for the NAO robot, evaluating its pedagogical impact in real school settings. Specifically, nine (9) focused on emotional competencies, one (1) on social interaction and collaboration, three (3) on working memory, and one (1) on the development of phonological awareness and grapheme-phoneme correspondence. For validation and evaluation, qualitative research was carried out in kindergartens in Attica, involving 42 preschool-aged students (4–6 years) in pre- / post-test studies. Measurements were made through observation and discussion, using video recordings, evaluation / self-evaluation sheets, rubrics, and statistical analysis. Our results and findings show that the children exhibited high participation in communicating their emotions to NAO, or even imitating it, conveying various emotions through facial expres-sions, gestures and body language. The children adapted their emotional expression according to the activity guidelines, helping NAO by proposing solutions to emotional regulation (sadness) or collaborating to solve common problems. Finally, it appears that the NAO robot can enhance both working memory and phonological awareness. Our future steps involve more long-term research in a wider audience and “humanising” NAO through AI integration to provide more physical human interactions.