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This paper presents the results of a pilot study that introduces social robots into kindergarten and first-grade classroom tasks. This study aims to understand 1) how effective social robots are in administering educational activities and assessments, and 2) if these interactions with social robots can serve as a gateway into learning about robotics and STEM for young children. We administered a commonly-used assessment (GFTA3) of speech production using a social robot and compared the quality of recorded responses to those obtained with a human assessor. In a comparison done between 40 children, we found no significant differences in the student responses between the two conditions over the three metrics used: word repetition accuracy, number of times additional help was needed, and similarity of prosody to the assessor. We also found that interactions with the robot were successfully able to stimulate curiosity in robotics, and therefore STEM, from a large number of the 164 student participants. 

This pilot study investigated the feasibility of implementing child-friendly robots for administering clinical and educational assessments with young children. JIBO, a social robot, was used as a new interface to administer a letter and number naming task and the 3rd Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA-3). The reason for using these assessment materials is to develop robust automatic speech recognition (ASR) and automated social interaction systems that can aid in administering such assessments more efficiently. The voice of JIBO simulates interaction with a peer, and images and playful transitions are displayed on JIBO’s face/screen. Several preliminary observations with 15 pre-kindergarten and 18 kindergarten students included the rate of task completion and strategies to increase student participation. Changes to the length and prompt delivery of the assessment protocol were considered based on these observations, and further observations are planned for future work with an additional cohort of 43 prekindergarten and 50 kindergarten students. Recommendations are given to inform future implementations and analyses.