Collaborative Research: Leveraging Smart Objects and AI for Understanding the Role of Language in Spatial Thinking and Learning

Spatial thinking is a crucial skill for success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), yet we still have much to learn about how children develop this ability. This project explores how young children build spatial thinking skills during play, and how conversations with parents can influence that development. The research uses smart building blocks, fitted with sensors, and advanced artificial intelligence tools to study both the way children construct patterns and the language that parents use to support them. The project aims to understand how everyday play and language helps shape a child’s mind, especially in STEM-related skills. The project also creates opportunities to engage in hands-on research and shares results with parents, teachers, and the broader community. The project brings together psychology, computer science, and artificial intelligence to understand how parent-child conversations influence spatial thinking during construction play. Using sensor-enabled smart objects and large language models, the project analyzes both the physical block-building sequences and the speech between parents and children. By studying the timing, style, and content of these interactions, the goal is to identify the features of language that best support spatial learning. The project also explores how spatial actions shape parental language in return, examining a reciprocal, dynamic relationship. Through machine learning, clustering techniques, and real-time data collection, the project aims to advance new methods for capturing the richness of children’s learning during play and contribute to the design of educational technologies and interventions that support learners. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.