Archives of Design Research

Teachers were selected as participants because they could notice differences in children through environmental changes more quickly than others(i.e., parents, etc.). It is desirable to obtain a wide range of opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Therefore, a public educational official from a relevant organization was also included. Thus, five schoolteachers and one scholar were interviewed individually.

Owing to the pandemic, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted online via Zoom. Each interview lasted approximately one hour and was recorded with the participant’s consent.

Participants answered a combination of two different types of questions. Some questions were structured and applicable to everyone, while others were more situational and related to personal experience. Participants were asked what aspects of the academic environment had changed during the pandemic and any subsequent difficulties. Specific interview questions included, “How are students reacting to changes in teaching methods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in terms of flexibility?” and “What difficulties do teachers face in this new environment?”

Voice-recorded data were analyzed based on thematic analysis (Throuvala et al., 2019; Park et al., 2017). The audio data were processed through transcription, open coding, and thematic analysis. First, the audio data were transcribed, and open coding was then conducted to divide the participants’ answers. The purpose of this step is to distinguish and divide answers into those that are relevant to the research and those that are not. Finally, based on the minimized data pieces, thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the participants’ answers in more detail. A total of two researchers conducted open coding to identify recurring patterns and discussed ways to arrange the patterns into categories.

T4 highlighted that the action of going to school is not the only thing that has vanished; the processes surrounding preparation for school have also been removed (VI-(O) in Table 2).

Before COVID-19, “going to school” was not simply classified as the act of students commuting to school, but it also played a role as a fixed event that repeatedly occurs throughout young children’s lives. To achieve this repeating fixed event promptly, children must repeat several other events, including waking up, washing, and eating breakfast. However, in a virtual learning environment, the act of going to school is not normalized, which in turn can obstruct their daily life patterns. This situation is also expected to be observed in other daily activities. Essentially, COVID-19 has virtually eliminated routine lifestyle habits and patterns from children’s lives.

As T5 mentioned, children who did not have a routine lifestyle exhibited problems such as recurring tardiness, even after returning to a face-to-face learning environment (I-(B) in Table 2). It was also revealed that children who developed irregular lifestyle patterns due to inconsistent sleeping and waking hours could not adapt to the frequently changing class environment.

T1 discussed examples of children who failed to develop behaviors and habits that they otherwise could have adopted in lower grades, if not for the difficulties in the academic environment due to COVID-19 (IV-(K) in Table 2).

A lack of proper lifestyle habits and behaviors impacted children’s lives even in the year following 2020, when COVID-19 was prevalent. Children who had not developed these qualities went beyond simply being unable to form a routine but also failed to learn socially appropriate behaviors. The transition period that takes place during the early part of the first grade of elementary school is vital because it is when children learn about rules and social life after leaving kindergarten (La Paro et al., 2000). However, children who entered this stage during the pandemic were seemingly unable to learn how to internalize these rules.

In a remote learning environment, children are expected to manage their own learning by watching and studying the learning materials provided. However, it is often difficult for young students to overcome the temptations of virtual media without supervision (I-(D) in Table 2). The ability to manage and control one’s own behaviors is strongly associated with self-regulation. This suggests that children with low self-regulation capacity experience more difficulty concentrating when taking online classes.

The prototype was designed to support children in performing their daily tasks through conversations with a chestnut-shaped agent (ForMe) in an Android application designed for children to use at home. The conversation was realized using the NAVER CLOVA chatbot builder.

This study involved collaboration with a pediatric psychiatrist to develop a prototype that could guarantee safety and efficacy for children. Characteristics such as the inability to manage time, problems maintaining focus or concentration, and a lack of self-regulation are all easily noticeable traits in ADHD patients (Barkley, 1997; Dobson & Shaw, 1988).

Meichenbaum suggested that a Goal-Plan-Do-Check strategy supports metacognitive thinking (Polatajko et al., 2001). Previous research developed a voice assistant for children with ADHD by using the strategy to apply self-instruction training to the use of the application (Park et al., 2020; Park et al., 2023).

The Goal-Plan-Do-Check process and the main screens that users encounter are illustrated in Figure 1. In the goal phase, children selected three tasks and entered the durations for each task with their parents. In the plan phase, children identified the task and its specific steps in detail while performing tasks. In the do phase, children went through the detailed steps and completed the tasks. Finally, in the check phase, they assessed the tasks completed during the week and selected tasks for the following week with their parents.

Figure 1 The screen and experience children encounter at each stage

The task selection available in the prototype was based on findings from previous studies for improving the basic lifestyle habits at home of children with ADHD (Park et al., 2020; Park et al., 2023). Users selected three tasks from a list, which included waking up on their own, brushing their teeth for three minutes after dinner, packing their school backpack for the following day, changing their clothes, washing their hands for 30 seconds, taking their medicine, and organizing their shoes when they get home.

Each task includes one to three detailed steps, which allows children to carry out complex tasks step by step. The goal was to increase the completion rate of tasks that involved multiple small steps by instilling participants with the sense that they were undergoing these tasks with the agent. For example, “Brushing my teeth after dinner” consists of 1) deciding to brush one’s teeth, 2) doing so for three minutes, and 3) wiping one’s hands with a towel.

The tasks can be fulfilled in two ways. First, at a preset time, the ForMe agent provides an alarm saying, “What should we be doing right now?” so that the child can complete the task. Second, the child can start the task by tapping on “ForMe” in the application.

The dialogue for each step has five or more different paraphrased variations for the same scenario, from which one is randomly selected and displayed. Visuals show changes in the screen at each stage. Changes in the steps and the agent’s expression represent the user’s progress in the current task.

Child participants were recruited through an online community board. Children whose mother tongue is Korean were selected to avoid any problems with communication through verbal interaction.

A total of 11 children (five males, six females) were recruited; the youngest was a preschool child (5.7 years old), and the oldest were in the fourth grade (Table 3). The average age of the participants was 7.7 years. None had any cognitive or emotional challenges. All procedures were conducted with the voluntary consent of the children and their parents.

This study was a pre-post-test for a single group. The experiment was conducted from April to May 2021, and each participant used the prototype for two weeks.

A researcher visited each child’s house the day before they began to use ForMe (Day 0) and distributed tablet PCs with the developed prototype installed. After receiving instructions from the researcher, children and their parents selected tasks to complete together. From the following day (Day 1) until Day 14, the child selected tasks and used the ForMe prototype (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Children using ForMe at home

Questionnaires and interviews were conducted on Day 0 and Day 15 (i.e., the day before and after participants engaged with ForMe). The questionnaires were completed with assistance from the researcher, who read each question aloud to the children to account for potential difficulties that they may have faced in understanding them.

Children and their parents participated in an in-depth interview. On Day 0, the interviews covered topics related to changes in children’s everyday lives and learning during COVID-19, as well as topics related to daily tasks that were too difficult to be tackled by the individuals themselves. Interviews on Day 15 focused on the differences in children’s lives. All interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ consent.

The extent to which the children formed routines or habits was analyzed through the Self-Report Index of Habit Strength (SRHI) (Verplanken & Orbell, 2003), which the children answered. The SRHI is a tool consisting of 12 questions that quantitatively measure the habit strength of certain behaviors. The areas covered are repetition, automaticity of behaviors, and relevance to self-identity. Each question was designed to be answered on a scale from 1 to 7, with higher scores reflecting more intense habits. Participants were to respond to the stem “Using ForMe behaviors is something...,” which was followed by the 12 items of the scale (e.g., “...I do frequently”).

The change in children’s self-efficacy was confirmed through the Korean General Self-Efficacy Scale (KGSES) (Kim, 1997), which the children also answered. The KGSES was developed based on early theory of self-efficacy and consists of three subscales: self-confidence, self-regulatory efficacy, and task difficulty preference (Bandura et al., 1999). Items were measured using a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores for each factor indicating higher self-efficacy. The self-confidence subscale consists of seven items, including “I often feel like I’m going to fail when I start a task.” Self-regulatory efficacy was measured based on answers to 12 questions, including “I try constantly even though there are obstacles.” Finally, task difficulty preference was confirmed via five questions, including “If it is possible to choose from a range of tasks, I would rather choose easy tasks than difficult ones.”

A reliability analysis was conducted on the SRHI and the three sub-factors of self-efficacy. Depending on the results of the normality test, either a paired sample t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed for analysis. SPSS Statistics 25 was used for data analysis.

The recorded interview data were analyzed based on qualitative summaries. The children’s and their parents’ opinions on the improvement of the habits and self-efficacy of former were analyzed. The discussion continued until the two researchers reached a unanimous agreement.

Although the test duration was only two weeks, the experience that children had with the agent had a significant impact. For example, C7 developed the habit of getting up early with continued repetition. P6 mentioned that if they had used the prototype for a longer period, they would have also developed certain habits.

Waking up at 7:30 a.m. became a habit for me. My eyes open automatically when it’s time -C7, 9-year-old boy.
If we had used ForMe a little longer, I believe the child would have developed a sense of “It’s time for me to do this,” and because the child has repeated a routine, I feel there’s a chance that they will make it a habit. Even now, the child goes to ForMe at set times, which shows me that they understand that it’s time for them to do something. –P6, Mother of 8-year-old girl.

Although the test was relatively short, we established the concepts of promise-keeping and time-setting in children’s minds through repetition. The current study demonstrated that using ForMe helps children remember promises they have made.

C10 explained that conducting tasks with ForMe allowed them to engage in more difficult tasks, such as studying, more easily. P6 explained that providing feedback to the child that they had independently completed their tasks had a positive result.

When I get home from school, I’m usually alone until mom arrives. I should have done my homework during that time, but I didn’t want to do it by myself in the past, especially if it was hard. With ForMe telling me things like “Let’s do it together” or asking me if I had done my tasks, it made me think that studying is actually fun. -C10, 7-year-old girl.
It was great to say positive things like “You did really great!” or “You kept your promises today again!’” even if they were done subconsciously. Normally, we wouldn’t be able to say things like that. Even as a parent, you can’t say things like that to your children very often. I suspect that children say that to themselves even less. But, since we began saying that every day, I think our child has gained more confidence – P7, Mother of 9-year-old boy.

C10 was a latchkey child. Even though nobody was home, the agent assisted the child in tackling difficult tasks. After a routine task, even if it was small, the experience of having completed something and the ability to compliment oneself positively impacted their self-efficacy.