A Skeptic’s Take on AI in Early Education & Child Development
How do we raise the next generation to make AI an effective tool for them, rather than a crutch?
Let me set the scene. It’s 2005, I just spent the last hour riding home on the school bus (living in the country meant I was always one of the last stops). I passed the time by making up handshakes with my friends, staring out the window, and trying to memorize every song on the radio since it seemed to be the same five country songs that were played every day. Once the bus finally dropped me off at home, I spent my evening finishing my homework (with a standard #2 pencil rather than a tablet) and playing outside until it was time for dinner. At the dinner table, we all sat down together and engaged in conversations about what we learned at school, how our day went, and things we were looking forward to. The idea of technology impacting our evening wasn’t really a thought, unless perhaps there was a Kansas basketball game on or an episode of Little House on the Prairie recorded on the VHS.
Fast-forward almost 20 years and I now have a daughter of my own. I quickly check my smart watch to know what the weather is going to be that day to decide how to dress her. While she’s at daycare, I get updates on her naps and meals, receive pictures of her playing, and can quickly message her teachers if needed, all from an app on my phone. If I’m running low on baby items, I simply place an order on my phone and schedule a same-day delivery. Suffice to say, technology has transformed the way we live, and often allows me to make quicker and more informed decisions as a mother. All these tech-enabled capabilities indirectly affect my daughter now, but they will soon directly affect her development as well, especially when we consider the increasing role of AI on our lives.
AI has clearly revolutionized the way we learn, work, and interact in the professional world. Through our experiences with different AI platforms, many of us have developed the knowledge and skills to use it as an incredibly effective resource but also know when to question it, when to fact check it, and when it’s unnecessary. So, how do we teach our young children these nuances of AI to make it an effective tool for them, rather than a crutch? At the same time, how do we encourage them to prioritize human interactions and relationships?
During a recent Harvard EdCast podcast, Assistant Professor Ying Xu sat down to discuss her research around this topic and the importance of teaching AI literacy to children as early as preschool.[i] She found that two things were needed for AI to have the opportunity to be an effective tool: 1) an understanding of how AI works, and 2) a minimum level of knowledge on the subject they are “discussing” with AI, in order to think critically about the information they are receiving. While most of the work around AI literacy is only in the research stage, there is an opportunity for educators to begin teaching the importance of this in the classroom. Developers can also embed prompts into AI tools to encourage critical thinking and help prevent children from confusing misinformation with truth.
Even if/when children can learn AI literacy and use it as an effective educational tool, many parents (myself included) have concerns on how it might negatively impact our children if we (and they) become too reliant on it. Because here’s the thing – it should not and will not replace the benefits of human interaction for social development. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us just that: according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, over 80% of public schools reported that the virtual learning environment negatively affected both socio-emotional and behavioral development in their students.[ii]
AI has its benefits and its place. An encouraging use case that Xu discussed during the podcast was an AI tool within a children’s book that not only provides prompts to the child to encourage engagement, but also gives prompts to the parent to encourage interaction between child/parent. Xu’s studies found that children were able to comprehend the stories better and even broadened their vocabulary through this type of interactive AI engagement.
Does this one use case solve the concern many of us might have? No, but I think it’s a great start. It’s taking the technological advances that we’ve made and using them to educate our children, while encouraging and prioritizing human relationships. For many of us, technology use is not one-size-fits-all, and we each have to make a judgment call on the right balance for our own families. Personally, my hope is that my daughter learns how technology can be a supplement to the way she learns, works, and lives, but first and foremost, I hope she falls in love with the simple things in life, like the grass beneath her feet, a conversation around the dinner table, or a long hug after a hard day.
— MacKenzie Hackathorn, Lead Business Program Specialist, Deloitte Consulting Office of the CTO
[i] “The Impact of AI on Children's Development,” Harvard EdCast, accessed November 2024.
[ii] “More than 80 Percent of U.S. Public Schools Report Pandemic Has Negatively Impacted Student Behavior and Socio-Emotional Development,” National Center for Education Statistics, accessed November 2024.