Abstract:

Social problem solving (SPS) skills are valuable to learn from early childhood. SPS skills can be trained as a prevention practice. I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) is a promising program for developing cognitive process, SPS skills and reducing behavioral problems. The literature indicates that equipping children with basic psychological skills such as SPS could decrease the possibility of psychological problems and increase educational achievements. In this project, NAO-ICPS, we aim to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of teaching the ICPS to typical children delivered by a social robot, Nao. This is a pilot randomized controlled trial with experiment and control groups. A total of 30 children are recruited randomly from an elementary school in Alesund. Children in the experimental group receive the ICPS program: 17 sessions of 45 min delivered by an instructor and NAO. Emotion understanding, emotion regulation, and negativity will be measured at baseline (pretest) and at the end of the intervention (post-test). Few studies have been conducted on this topic using the social robot for typical children to explore its acceptability and feasibility of ICPS.

Keywords:

social robots, social problem solving, primary grade children.