Artificial intelligence based smart toys for preschool children: A design-based study

The aim of this study is to develop a smart toy using artificial intelligence techniques in order to support the number, shape, animal and color concept development of children in preschool period, to investigate the use of the toy and to evaluate its support for concept development in line with the opinions of preschool teachers and parents. The smart toy developed is planned to be an intelligent teaching system that teaches the concepts to the child in accordance with his/her own learning pace. It is aimed to direct the interests of children, who are intertwined with technology and have a great interest in technology products, to the educational content. The study group consists of 185 children in the 4-5 age group in two independent kindergartens in Afyonkarahisar province, 8 pre-school teachers and 10 of parents of these children in the 2019-2020 academic year. For the purpose of the study, design-based research method was used. As a result of the preparation of the first prototype of the smart toy, its implementation, and its deficiencies in the framework of the suggestions, the final toy was obtained. In order to determine the support of the concept development of the smart toy in line with the opinions of the parents and preschool teachers, an application activity was carried out within the framework of a work plan. The implementation process, which included observation during child's play with the toy and parent and teacher interviews, lasted one week. In the study, semi-structured interview forms of teacher and parent interviews were used to collect data. Child observation form was used to observe children. Content analysis method was used to analyze qualitative data. The data obtained from the interviews with teachers and parents were organized with Nvivo 11 qualitative data analysis program, and free codes and tree codes were created. In the framework of the findings obtained from the parent interviews, it was determined that children's toy preferences differed, they were interested in the technological devices in the house, they mostly liked to play with light toys, sound toys and digital games. It has been observed that technology is used for the education of children in schools. Preschool teachers adopt the use of technology in education provided that the material to be used is purified from the harmful aspects of technology.. It was concluded that the artificial intelligence-based smart toy developed in line with teacher-parent interviews and observations was successful in supporting the concept development and can be used in individualized education. It has been observed that the toy is interesting, provides motivation, and increases the child's willingness to learn. The toy has been evaluated as appropriate for the age of the children and easy to use. In the study, suggestions for supporting the learning and developing interaction features of the toy are presented.