To Örebro University

Shape-changing skin is an exciting modality due to its accessible and engaging nature. Its softness and flexibility make it adaptable to different interactive devices that children with and without visual impairments can share. Although their potential as an emotionally expressive medium has been shown for sighted adults, their potential as an inclusive modality remains unexplored. This work explores the shape-emotional mappings in children with and without visual impairment. We conducted a user study with 50 children (26 with visual impairment) to investigate their emotional associations with five skin shapes and two movement conditions. Results show that shape-emotional mappings are dependent on visual abilities. Our study raises awareness of the influence of visual experiences on tactile vocabulary and emotional mapping among sighted, low-vision, and blind children. We finish discussing the causal associations between tactile stimuli and emotions and suggest inclusive design recommendations for shape-changing devices.

Children with visual impairments often struggle to fully participate in group activities due to limited access to visual cues. They have difculty perceiving what is happening, when, and how to act-leading to children with and without visual impairments being frustrated with the group activity, reducing mutual interactions. To address this, we created Touchibo, a tactile storyteller robot acting in a multisensory setting, encouraging touch-based interactions. Touchibo provides an inclusive space for group interaction as touch is a highly accessible modality in a mixed-visual ability context. In a study involving 107 children (37 with visual impairments), we compared Touchibo to an audio-only storyteller. Results indicate that Touchibo signifcantly improved children's individual and group participation perception, sparking touch-based interactions and the storyteller was more likable and helpful. Our study highlights touch-based robots' potential to enrich children's social interactions by prompting interpersonal touch, particularly in mixed-visual ability settings.

Research on robotic ostracism is still scarce and has only explored its effects on adult populations. Although the results revealed important carryover effects of robotic exclusion, there is no evidence yet that those results occur in child-robot interactions. This paper provides the first exploration of robotic ostracism with children. We conducted a study using the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm in a third-person perspective with a sample of 52 children aged between five to ten years old. The experimental study had two conditions: Exclusion and Inclusion. In the Exclusion condition, children observed a peer being excluded by two robots; while in the Inclusion condition, the observed peer interacted equally with the robots. Notably, even 5-year-old children could discern when robots excluded another child. Children who observed exclusion reported lower levels of belonging and control, and exhibited higher prosocial behaviour than those witnessing inclusion. However, no differences were found in children's meaningful existence, self-esteem, and physical proximity across conditions. Our user study provides important methodological considerations for applying the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm with children. The results extend previous literature on both robotic ostracism with adults and interpersonal ostracism with children. We finish discussing the broader implications of children observing ostracism in human-robot interactions.