An intelligent ecosystem based on robotic assistants, rule-based reasoning and serious games to support early stimulation activities for children from low-income families

Abstract

According to the UNESCO, early childhood care and education is an essential process of the children development. Early childhood is the period from birth to eight years, where the children present a remarkable growth with brain development at its peak. In developing countries such as Ecuador, currently, do not exist formal educational programs based on serious games or educational robotics. This situation is more complicated for government schools or private institutions that attend children from low-income families. For these reasons, in this paper, we present an ecosystem aimed at stimulating the early development of children from 3 to 7 years. Our proposal (named in Kiwcha “Yachasun”, learn) relies on low-cost robotic assistants (to provide kinesthetic stimuli), an expert system based on rules (to suggest educational exercises and activities for children), and serious games (to stimulate and motivate children to learn). Our ecosystem was put to the test with 60 children from low and middle-income families during real classes. The results show that children feel highly motivated to learn concepts related to language, mathematics/logic, self-awareness/autonomy, fine motor skills, and coexistence.