Robot Programming to Empower Higher Cognitive Functions in Early Childhood

This chapter describes a new approach of educational robotics (ER) aimed at empowering higher cognitive functions in school. As robot programming requires mentally planning complex action sequences before the motor act, ER may promote several crucial cognitive processes underlying learning. During robot programming, the child has to first set the target, second sequentially think through the steps needed to achieve that target, then verify the goal, and eventually reset the plan. All these mental acts involve executive functions (EFs), which are complex higher cognitive processes, crucial in early development because they are the base for abstraction and logical reasoning, decision-making, sequential thinking, and maintaining and updating information in memory and problem-solving. Robot programming may empower EFs not only by improving top-down cognitive control, working memory, and inhibition skills but also by placing the child, more than other passive thought technologies, in front of “objects to think with” in a group setting that stimulates the use of EFs for social and emotional purposes. Recent studies demonstrating, through a rigorous and scientific approach, the effect of ER on EFs in typical and atypical development will be discussed.