A brief review of robot applications for young children

With technological advancements, children today learn in ways that can be radically different from how their parents did. Considering the learning differences, the purpose of this review is to explore robot use for its potential benefits in educating today¿s children who need to be learning differently from the generation before. As children are growing up in an increasingly tech-savvy world, this review would serve to raise the awareness of robot applications developed for young children, so that more people can be sensitized to the adoption of robots for early childhood education. The studies and reports included in this review are a selection of robot applications used with children in the general population of early childhood (0 - 8) years. Based on collaborative efforts in function and design such as the use of puppetry, as well as curriculum design in areas such as behaviour modification, social or motor skills, numeracy, language and literacy through storytelling and/or games, the robot applications reviewed here have been found to present with great potential for a dynamic way to educate the young. Implications for use with children with special needs are discussed.