Dot's World: An Emotional Development Support Platform for Children

Abstract

This project was started to explore ways we can utilize the benefits of human-robot facilitated therapy to support a child's emotional development and identify needs for early intervention. As a result, we designed an app prototype called Dot's World that features a chatbot that leads daily conversations about emotional well-being and facilitates emotional education exercises. We also created a companion app prototype for parents to involve them in their child's emotional growth and identify needs for early intervention. To understand the current perceptions of emotional health and existing solutions for support, we conducted customer discovery interviews with parents and education professionals like teachers, psychologists, and counselors. Multiple factors in the interview process including variations in technology access as well as confidence in traditional methods of emotional development have led us to pivot our original vision. Interviews with professionals in the education system helped us to realize an apparent need for a platform providing socio-emotional tools for educators and improving communication channels within the child's support system. We will be iterating on Dot's World's design and conducting more interviews to better understand and support the need of this new demographic.