AN INTERACTIVE toy that encourages young children to share could be the first
of a new generation of toys that could turn spoilt brats into civilised
people.
Justine Cassell of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
has created a virtual environment around a toy castle filled with dolls. But
unlike most doll鈥檚 houses, the child has to share this one with a 3D
computer-animated androgynous playmate called Sam.
Sam鈥檚 image is projected onto a screen on the other side of the castle, so
children can see what he鈥檚 up to by looking through the windows in each room.
Sam is programmed to tell stories about the dolls and their adventures in the
castle鈥檚 different rooms. Sam then asks his real playmates to embellish the
tale, pushing them to develop their storytelling skills by asking 鈥渁nd what did
she do next鈥� when they stop speaking.
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To add realism, and to reinforce the sharing experience, Sam can even 鈥渉and鈥�
one of the dolls to players through a trapdoor. But if the child snatches the
doll too soon, Sam will object, yelling something like 鈥淗ey, I was playing with
迟丑补迟鈥�.
MIT originally created the castle to study language development, but in
studies this summer with children from a south Boston school, Cassell was amazed
to find they behaved much better with Sam than they did with their schoolmates.
One little girl who didn鈥檛 think much of Sam鈥檚 contribution told him: 鈥淭ry to
tell a longer story next time, Sam.鈥�
Children tend to treat Sam as though they were looking after a younger child,
says Cassell. They also use more complicated language to explain what they are
thinking than they do when talking to adults. She thinks this happens because
Sam鈥檚 good behaviour rubs off on them and the stories structure the child鈥檚 play
in the same way as an imaginary playmate.
The civilising effect of the toy even works on two or more children, who
share the dolls and explain their ideas to the group far better than when Sam
isn鈥檛 there. 鈥淭hey did argue but they came to agreements,鈥� Cassell says, 鈥渂ut
when Sam wasn鈥檛 there, they didn鈥檛 really play and two of the kids even broke
the castle.鈥�
David Walsh of the National Institute of Media and the Family, a
Minneapolis-based group that lobbies against the harmful effects of technology
on children, warns that it takes a lot of effort to develop and market toys that
are truly educational but he thinks it鈥檚 a good idea to try. 鈥淎lthough we talk
about the harm technology can do, it can be used to teach very pro-social
lessons,鈥� he says.