Exploring the Changes of Children’s Reading Activity in Repeated Non-verbal Interaction with a Dog-type Social Robot Minjae Sung Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

Abstract

The development of cognitive and emotional abilities in children is significantly influenced by reading activities. Designing effective reading experiences is a critical aspect of child development, and parents and instructors emphasize the importance of fostering autonomous reading habits. However, sustaining self-directed reading without adult intervention remains a pedagogical challenge. Conventional reading programs often lack engaging stimuli and rely heavily on adult scaffolding, which may inadvertently increase children’s performance pressure and reading anxiety. To address these limitations, recent ap- proaches such as animal-assisted ‘Read-to-Dog’ programs and storytelling (content-based) robots have been proposed. Yet, these methods present practical barriers: animal-assisted programs face hygiene, safety, and management issues in public environments, while content-based robots depend on scripted media that require continuous updates and lack flexibility across ages and themes. This study proposes an alternative approach using a non-verbal, content-independent dog-type social robot, PO-ME, designed to support children’s self-directed reading through expressive and responsive non-verbal feedback. The robot communicates emotional expressions solely through gaze and head and tail movement, functioning as a non-judgmental listener that provides emotional comfort without lin- guistic or evaluative feedback. A six-week field study was conducted with children aged 6–8 in a public library, using a repeated-measures design. Each participant alternated between reading-with-robot and reading-alone sessions across six weekly visits. Quantitative measures included surveys on reading anx- iety, interest, and autonomy, while qualitative data consisted of behavioral observations (gaze, touch, facial expressions) and interviews with children, instructors, and librarians. Results showed that in the early sessions, children’s reported interest increased immediately after reading-with-robot sessions, and reading anxiety tended to decrease compared to reading alone, though longitudinal trends were not statistically significant. Individual differences were notable in sustained engagement and intrinsic motivation. Interviews revealed that most children perceived the robot as a comforting presence and expressed increased willingness to read voluntarily. In contrast, instructors highlighted the limitation of purely non-verbal feedback, emphasizing the necessity of verbal encour- agement and adult mediation for long-term habit formation. Nevertheless, librarians and instructors generally agreed on the robot’s potential as a supplementary educational tool rather than a standalone facilitator. Overall, the findings demonstrate that non-verbal robot companionship can function as a low-pressure partner that stabilizes children’s reading focus and alleviates anxiety. The study provides empirical ev- idence and design guidelines for integrating non-verbal social robots into public reading environments, emphasizing the need for multimodal feedback and human–robot collaboration to sustain motivation and emotional safety in children’s autonomous reading.