ELLA: Generative AI-Powered Social Robots for Early Language Development at Home
This addresses the problem of limited access to early language development support for families, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing generative AI and social robot technologies.
The researchers tackled the challenge of providing scalable, high-quality early language support at home by developing ELLA, a generative AI-powered social robot that engages children in adaptive, conversational activities, resulting in design insights from in-home workshops and deployment with ten children over eight days.
Early language development shapes children's later literacy and learning, yet many families have limited access to scalable, high-quality support at home. Recent advances in generative AI make it possible for social robots to move beyond scripted interactions and engage children in adaptive, conversational activities, but it remains unclear how to design such systems for pre-schoolers and how children engage with them over time in the home. We present ELLA (Early Language Learning Agent), an autonomous, generative AI-powered social robot that supports early language development through interactive storytelling, parent-selected language targets, and scaffolded dialogue. Using a multi-phased, human-centered process, we interviewed parents (n=7) and educators (n=5) and iteratively refined ELLA through twelve in-home design workshops. We then deployed ELLA with ten children for eight days. We report design insights from in-home workshops, characterize children's engagement and behaviors during deployment, and distill design implications for generative AI-powered social robots supporting early language learning at home.