Childhood created by AI

Would you ever trust an AI to raise your child? Well, if I asked that question today the obvious answer is a no. However, what if AI was involved in your child’s development? That answer might change to a maybe. Well, what if there was an AI that can help your child’s vocabulary? Now, you’re leaning toward a yes. Imagine an AI that can monitor the words your child hear and say at any given time. What if this AI can keep track of these words and on top of that, it can suggest new vocabulary child should be exposed to. This will not only help kids improve their overall vocabulary but especially helpful for kids in lower socioeconomic status (SES). Recent research found that there are up to 30 million word gap between children from the richest families and the poorest families*

there are up to 30 million word gap between children from the richest families and the poorest families

That is an astonishing amount of words children in lower SES will never be exposed to, but this problem can be fixed with the help of an AI. To further understand this problem, proper research must be done.

There are three ways we can conduct this research. First, we need to understand the scope of the problem. This can be done through secondary external research. Second, we need to understand the perspective of users, or parents, on the problem. This can be done through a direct interview with the parents. Last, we must understand the need for this product in the market.

The point of secondary research is to understand how serious the issue of vocabulary gap is. We will need to find articles and research regarding the effect of vocabulary in early childhood development. To be more specific, how the range of vocabulary can affect the baby’s intelligence in adulthood. This research can help us understand the reason why our AI product will be needed for the children. It’s also important to research when each stage of language development takes place. By understanding at which stage the baby’s vocabulary is most expanded, perhaps it will help us narrow down the period of time our product will be used.

After understanding the “Why” behind our product, it’s important for us to understand the problem from the perspective of parents and a direct interview with few parents can be set up to conduct this research. One way for our team to get in contact with some of the parents is by using the connection I have with parents in local elementary school. I mentor elementary school kids in lower SES, so getting in contact with their parents wouldn’t be so difficult. Understand the awareness of the problem by these parents can help us understand if the problem we’re trying to solve might be too narrow. We can ask questions such as

1. How involved are you with your child’s vocabulary development?
2. What are some ways you teach your kids words?
3. How do you know if your child understands the words you say?

The last focus of the research should be on the market research. We need to understand if people are willing to use our product if it is accessible. To understand the market, we can add questions to the list when interviewing parents if they are willing to try out a product if it was given for free. We can also conduct a similar interview to local daycare providers and see if they’re willing to try out the product with the kids they take care of. This way we can understand how people feel about the product if it was available and understand what kind of feature they would want in the product.

This summary of the research method should help us get started with our product research before we dive further deep creating a solution with an AI.

*= “https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/feb2014/the-word-gap”