About this session

Thursday, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

AI-Powered Tools for Children: Understanding Engagement, Learning, and Trust in Emerging Technologies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a constant presence in children’s lives, embedded in applications across healthcare, education, and entertainment. Yet, how children engage with and perceive these technologies remains underexplored, and even less is understood about their potential impact. This symposium brings together studies that examine children’s engagement with various AI-powered tools, offering fresh insights into the opportunities and challenges AI presents for children’s learning and development.
The first study investigates how children (aged 3-12) engage with AI-powered voice assistants (VAs) like Siri and Alexa through a national survey of parents. It found that children with mental and behavioral health diagnoses engage more frequently. Expressive/relational interactions were most closely linked to parents’ perceptions of social-emotional learning benefits, suggesting VAs may help support social-emotional growth, especially for younger children with these diagnoses.
The second study investigates how AI-enhanced educational television can improve children’s learning. In a randomized trial, children (aged 4-7) watched either an interactive AI-powered video with personalized feedback, a pseudo-interactive version with generic feedback, or a non-interactive version. Children in the interactive group showed greater science learning and verbal engagement, highlighting AI’s potential to create personalized and immersive educational experiences.
The third study explores children’s trust in familiar versus unfamiliar online information sources. Data from 4- to 8-year-olds reveal that older children trust both familiar and unfamiliar search engines equally, while younger children are more cautious about unfamiliar ones. As generative AI becomes more common, this raises concerns about reliance on search engines without critically evaluating the content.

Paper #1
Title	AI-Powered Voice Assistants and Children’s Social-Emotional Learning: Usage Patterns Across Developmental Profiles
Presenting author	Dr. Zhiying Yue, Boston Children's Hospital, United States

Paper #2
Title	Effects of AI-Enhanced Television Shows on Children’s Science Learning and Verbal Engagement
Presenting author	Dr. Ying Xu, Ph.D., Harvard University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Young Children’s Trust in Novel and Familiar Search Engines
Presenting author	Lauren Girouard, University of Michigan, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Dr. Zhiying Yue, Boston Children's Hospital, United States

Discussant
David S. Bickham, Ph.D., Boston Children's Hospital, United States

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