“Elinor’s Talking to Me!”:Integrating Conversational AI into Children’s Narrative Science Programming
Open accessAbstract
Video programs are important, accessible educational resources for young children, especially those from an under-resourced backgrounds. These programs’ potential can be amplified if children are allowed to socially interact with media characters during their video watching. This paper presents the design and empirical investigation of interactive science-focused videos in which the main character, powered by a conversational agent, engaged in contingent conversation with children by asking children questions and providing responsive feedback. We found that children actively interacted with the media character in the conversational videos and their parents spontaneously provided support in the process. We also found that the children who watched the conversational video performed better in the immediate, episode-specific science assessment compared to their peers who watched the broadcast, non-interactive version of the same episode. Several design implications are discussed for using conversational technologies to better support child active learning and parent involvement in video watching.
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AI-powered systems can personalize educational experiences to address individual learning needs.
“Prior work has highlighted that AI-powered systems can personalize educational experiences to address individual learning needs [78, 79, 82]”
From SET-PAiREd: Designing for Parental Involvement in Learning with an AI-Assisted Educational Robot (2025) · cites this paper as [79]
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Tudor, I., Dlab, M. H., & Đurović, G. (2024) · International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics · doi:10.1109/mipro60963.2024.10569495 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Towards Age-Inclusive Conversational interfaces: Understanding Requirements Across Age Groups
Boostani, R., Munteanu, C., & Kuzminykh, A. (2025) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3719160.3736619 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Haber, A. S., Kumar, S. C., Swenson, M., Bode, K., & Ruel, E. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16050661 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Vocalize: Lead Acquisition and User Engagement through Gamified Voice Competitions
Teskeredzic, E., Paric, M., Sestic, A., Fribert, P., Lukac, A., Hadžić, H., Altwlkany, K., & Lacić, E. (2025) · doi:10.1145/3720533.3750059 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Zhang, K., Niu, Y., Alqassim, M. Y., Inglis, A. L., Palansuriya, C., & Constantin, A. (2026) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3772363.3798774 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Creating Personas of Parents of Young Children Based on Balancing Priorities
Currin, F. H., & Hourcade, J. P. (2024) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3628516.3655790 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Beale, R. (2025) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3713043.3731538 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Examining Children's Perceptions of Intelligent Media CharactersPreprint
Xu, Y., Thomas, T., Li, Z., Chan, M., Lin, G. C., & Moore, K. (2024) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4824709
Self-citationJing, M., Hu, T., Li, H., & Xu, Y. (2024) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3628516.3659384
Self-citationLi, J. (2025) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3713043.3731606
Escobar-Planas, M., Sala, A., Di-Gioia, R., Paniagua, L., Frau, P., Charisi, V., Ruiz-Sánchez, R., Martínez-Hinarejos, C.-D., Merino, L., Sanchez, I., et al. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5374968
Kids cartoon characters that use AI to customize responses help children learn
Xu, Y. (2023) · doi:10.64628/aai.w5qa4m6mp
Self-citationAktaş, N. B., & Akbıyık, A. (2026) · Universal Access in the Information Society · doi:10.1007/s10209-026-01311-0
Generative AI can play a role uplifting family and community in early childhood education
Bustamante, A. S., & Gastón-Panthaki, A. (2026) · doi:10.64628/aai.tukut7ctn
Self-citationZeng, S., & Xiong, H. (2026) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3772363.3798929
C3AI: Where Do Trust, Design, and Evaluation Meet in Child–AI Interaction?
Ragone, G., Bai, Z., Good, J., & Atabey, A. (2026) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3773077.3816196
BioStories: A Child-AI Co-creation Storytelling System for Biology Education in Primary School
Zeng, Y., Constantin, A., Imperatore, G., & Zhang, K. (2026) · ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) · doi:10.1145/3773077.3812188
- Authors
- Xu, Y., Vigil, V., Bustamante, A. S., & Warschauer, M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Venue
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2022-04-29
- Pages
- 1-16
- OpenAlex
- W4225006040
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 15.41
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- NSF (National Science Foundation) (#1906321 and #2115382)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Keywords
- chatbots, children's science learning, interactive educational videos, media characters, parental involvement, active learning, science assessment
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