Young Children's Creative Storytelling with ChatGPT vs. Parent: Comparing Interactive Styles

Abstract

Creative storytelling with parents plays an important role in child development including language skills, social competence, and emotional understanding. Recognizing the challenges parents face in finding time for storytelling due to work and home responsibilities, we explore the feasibility of ChatGPT for engaging children in creative storytelling. This study investigates the use of ChatGPT, a conversational agent powered by GPT-4, in creative storytelling with children aged 5-6, comparing its interaction styles with those of parents. The current study included eight child-parent dyads. We found that children were engaged in shorter and more frequent interactions with parents compared to ChatGPT. ChatGPT and parents asked different types of questions, and ChatGPT more frequently provided positive feedback compared to parents. More children selected the interactions with ChatGPT as their favorite interactions. The study provides preliminary evidence on ChatGPT's interaction styles and insights into its potential role in supporting families in creative storytelling activities.