International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347

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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcci

Research paper

Maya: An artificial intelligence based smart toy for pre-school children

∗
Mevlüde Akdeniz , Fatih Özdinç
Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: Toys are valuable educational tools that, while entertaining, they also help in childhood development.
Received 22 October 2020 Traditional instructional materials do not adequately take into account children’s individual develop-
Received in revised form 7 May 2021 ment abilities. New instructional materials should be developed so that children can obtain education
Accepted 29 June 2021
in accordance with their own learning pace and learning processes. The possible benefits to be drawn
Available online 7 July 2021
from smart devices that cater to more than one sensory organ simultaneously and the inferences to
Keywords: be drawn from scenarios utilizing such instructional materials are amazing. The aim of this study
Smart toys was to develop a smart toy using artificial intelligence in order to support the concept development
Artificial intelligence of preschool children in terms of numbers, shapes, animals and colors. In this study, the design and
Concept teaching development process of the smart toy Maya is explained. Maya is a humanoid robot that supports
Pre-school children children in learning at their own pace and can determine what and how to teach and to which child.
Educational robots It is an intelligent tutoring system that can perform image processing and natural language processing
in the teaching process. Maya is being able to recognize its user, to interact, and to manage learning
activities according to the learning speed of the child. A design-based research method was used in
the study. A needs analysis was conducted during the design phase of the smart toy, and the attributes
that a toy should provide to help the acquisition of the concept by children were determined. A toy
prototype was developed within the framework of the determined criteria. Preschool teachers were
interviewed about the prototype toy. Improvements were made to the toy in response to its perceived
flaws as well as other feedback, and the second iteration of the smart toy was developed. The toy’s
shortcomings were discovered through interviews and were then removed, and the toy was given its
final form. An interactive smart toy which can be used for both individual and group activities was
developed at the end of research. In this study, the educational, hardware and software components of
the smart toy are emphasized, and a framework for the smart toy design and the development process
is provided.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
From character development to social roles, play provides chil-
dren with natural learning environments, enabling them to de-
velop socially, mentally, emotionally and physically
(Özer, Gürkan, & Ramazanoğlu, 2006). Since a child can learn by
playing games, playful learning activities can enable the child
to learn many subjects without difficulty, with fun, and can
facilitate the understanding of educational content (Aral, Gürsoy,
& Köksal, 2000; Chang, Liang, Chou, & Lin, 2017). Technology
can be used in the gamification of learning activities. The use of
technology in education provides children with opportunities to
demonstrate their learning individually, making it easier for chil-
dren to consider their individual differences and continue their
education according to their own interests and needs (Clements
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: akdenizmevlude@gmail.com (M. Akdeniz),
fatihozdinc@gmail.com (F. Özdinç).
& Nastasi, 1999). Due to the pandemic caused by the Covid-
19 virus, the changes experienced in many areas around the
world also directly affect educational environments. Distance
learning processes are currently changing learning habits. Where
children are physically away from their teachers, supporting their
learning process is an important issue. This gives importance to
technologies appropriate to children’s learning needs.
Toys are the most basic and indispensable game materials,
enabling children to understand their environment, give them
the opportunity to gain certain experiences, learn social roles,
contribute to areas of development, and keep them learning
voluntarily or involuntarily while they spend free time (Cinel,
2006; Metin, Mercan, & Kavak, 2017). Toys can also support the
process of gaining information.
Smart toys are the state of classic toys enriched with techno-
logical content for a chosen purpose. Unlike other toys, smart toys
have the ability to adapt to changing situations, to interact with
children, give feedback, sound warnings, give hints, etc. (Kara,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100347
2212-8689/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
2015). In their study, Lampe and Hinske (2007) stated that tra-
ditional toys supported by multimedia content such as audio and
video can make games fun and instructive. Smart toys provide
children with many opportunities to support creative play, to
encounter events they may not experience in normal life, and to
engage in collaborative learning (Miller, 2019). Through the new
functions that smart toys provide, the development process of
educational robots has started, and the use of these robots in the
educational environment has begun.
1.1. Educational robots
The rapid development of robotic systems allows robots to be
used outside factories, leading to increased studies on human–
robot interaction (Zlotowski, Weiss, & Tscheligi, 2011). Educa-
tion is one of the areas where human–robot interaction can be
utilized. Studies are being carried out on the use of robots in
education, educational robots are being developed, these robots
are being tested in the classroom environment, and studies are
being carried out to identify and improve the more inadequate
aspects of robots. To give an example of these studies, Tanaka and
Kimura (2010) developed a robot to enrich educational environ-
ments in preschool education classes and persistently observed
the development of socialization between children and robots.
Hashimoto, Kobayashi, Polishuk, and Verner (2013) examined the
interaction of a pre-programmed humanoid robot with students
in a science course. Lapeyre et al. (2014) developed an open
source robot that can imitate the physical movements of another
person. The robot was used in student drama and dance training.
Yun et al. (2011) developed a robot called Engkey that a teacher
can control remotely and used it in teaching English. Lee, Noh,
Lee, Lee, and Lee (2010) developed a robot called Mero to try
teaching primary students sounds and pronunciation. Studies on
the use of robots in education include design and application
processes (Conti, Cirasa, Di Nuovo, & Di Nuovo, 2019; Han, Jones,
& Jo, 2008). In the studies carried out, the educational robots
developed were used in educational environments. It is concluded
that robots are a good educational tool for students and a good
supplementary material for teachers (Amanatiadis, Kaburlasos,
Dardani, & Chatzichristofis, 2017; Hamdan, Amorri, & Hamdan,
2017).
Given the fact that educational robots need to be
pre-programmed for the subject they teach, it is not possible
to maintain classroom control in non-educational situations that
may develop in the classroom. The fact that children, like teach-
ers, cannot direct the process according to the emotional state
of the children indicates that these robots cannot replace teach-
ers; these robots can only be used by teachers as an auxiliary
aid (Sharkey, 2015). The development of educational robots with
artificial intelligence techniques can increase the functionality
and fitness of these robots.
Artificial intelligence is a discipline that aims to model mental
functions with mathematical formulas and apply them to sys-
tems. High-level cognitive processes such as generalization and
meaning making are performed by a computer or a machine
controlled by a computer (Nabiyev, 2012). Sağıroğlu, Beşdok, and
Erler (2003) describe artificial intelligence as the use of human
brain functions such as thinking, interpreting and learning for
problem-solving purposes by mimicking them with program-
ming methods. The equipment used in education is transformed
into materials that mimic the thinking skills of intelligent crea-
tures, adapt to different conditions, and communicate by de-
veloping and strengthening learning with artificial intelligence
techniques (Uğur & Kınacı, 2006).
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
1.2. Aim of the research
The aim of this research is to investigate of design and de-
velopment of a smart toy using artificial intelligence techniques
and create a road map in this regard in order to support the
development of preschool children’s concepts of number, shape,
animal and color. The smart toy being developed is planned to
be an intellectual tutoring system and an individualized training
material that teaches concepts to the child in accordance with
their own learning pace. It is hoped that technology will posi-
tively contribute to the education of children who interact with
it and who are interested in it.
1.3. The importance of the research
When studies on the use of artificial intelligence techniques
in education are examined and classified according to their sam-
ples, it is observed that the target audience of the studies is
usually university students. There are a limited number of stud-
ies on artificial intelligence involving preschool and elementary
students (Ponce et al., 2017; Williams, 2018). Research is gener-
ally focused on educational software and distance learning sys-
tems (Aktaş & Doğan, 2011; Öcal, 2016). With educational soft-
ware and distance education systems, information can be trans-
ferred to the user with items such as text, video, and audio. In
the preschool period, the use of concrete materials, unlike educa-
tional software, can make the content easier to understand (Fisch,
McCann Brown, & Cohen, 2001). It is thought that smart toys can
be used in the education of preschool children and can contribute
to the cognitive development of the child playing with the toy.
This raises the need to develop a smart toy that is designed with
the individual learning differences and learning speeds of the
children, is technologically equipped, and that will be used to
provide children with concepts suitable to their developmental
periods. Kara and Çağıltay (2020) designed and developed smart
toys for preschool children, but the smart toy developed in the
current study has artificial intelligence support.
It is thought that the research may be a source of future
studies on the use of artificial intelligence in education and that
the use of artificial intelligence techniques in teaching material
and teaching software development will contribute to student-
centered education, to addressing the deficiency in the literature,
and to technological material design developed for preschool
children.
2. Method
In this study, an educational material was designed and uti-
lized, and the effects of supporting concept acquisition were
examined in order to facilitate preschool children’s learning of
animal names and to support concept development of color,
number and shape.
2.1. Research design
In the study, a design-based research method was used. The
design-based research method is a systematic method in which
analysis, design, development and application steps are repeated
in a planned manner until the desired result is achieved, and
where the designers and participants work in collaboration in
a real practice environment and certain steps are carried out to
improve educational practices (Wang & Hannafin, 2005).
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
Table 1
Demographic characteristics of teachers participating in the study.
Demographic Variables N %
Gender Male 7 87,5
Female 1 12,5
Education Undergraduate 5 62,5
Master’s degree 3 37,5
Experience 1–4 years 2 25
5–10 years 2 25
More than 10 years 4 50
Total 8 100
2.2. Participants
The study’s participants included eight preschool teachers
who taught in two kindergartens during the 2019–2020 academic
year. Teachers were coded as T1-T2 in the study. Table 1 displays
the demographic information for participating teachers.
The majority of the teachers taking part are female, under-
graduate, and have more than ten years of experience. Three
interviews were conducted with the teachers, including needs
analysis, prototype interview and focus group interview. Infor-
mation was given about the toy developed at each meeting. Since
data satisfaction was achieved in the interviews with 8 teachers
during the needs analysis process, the same was continued with
8 teachers in the next process.
2.3. Instruments and data collection
Before the smart toy design, a needs analysis was carried out
to determine what kind of materials are needed in education
and what properties these materials should have. The needs
analysis was conducted as a literature review and interviews with
preschool teachers. A needs analysis interview form consisting of
12 open-ended questions was used in the interviews. Some of the
questions included were: What are the materials that are often
used in concept teaching? Is the educational software designed
for preschool children capable of meeting the needs of children’s
cognitive development? In light of the available materials, what
features of the materials do you believe should be developed to
improve the effectiveness of teaching?
Following the completion of the smart toy design, two focus
group meetings were held with groups of four to determine the
teachers’ opinions about the smart toy. A teacher interview form
consisting of 15 open-ended questions was used in the interview.
Some of the questions included were: What are your general
thoughts about smart toys? What do you think about the design
of the toy? Considering the toy’s suitability for the purpose of
development, what are the points you think are missing in the
design?
It was stated to the teachers that the data received from them
would remain confidential and their voluntary participation was
ensured. The data obtained were recorded in the interview form.
The interviews lasted approximately 26–34 min.
2.4. Data analysis
A content analysis method was used to analyze qualitative
data. The data obtained from the interviews with teachers were
organized in Nvivo 11 qualitative data analysis program, and
free codes and tree codes were created. The suitability of the
codes and subthemes created to express the information ob-
tained from the records of teacher interviews was examined by
a different expert, and the codes were finalized by eliminating
the differences of opinion that emerged. The reliability formula
recommended by Miles and Huberman (1994) was used in the
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
reliability calculation, and 87% compliance was determined in the
calculation. The fact that the result is over 70% indicates that the
research is reliable.
2.5. Development of the smart toy Maya
In order to design an educational material within the frame-
work of the criteria determined, the smart toy then entered the
design phase. The design and development process of the smart
toy is shown in Fig. 1.
As seen in Fig. 1, a needs analysis study was performed
with the preschool teachers in the study group during the pre-
implementation period to decide what kind of materials teachers
and students needed. By evaluating the appropriate gains for the
age group, the strategies for achieving these gains were deter-
mined using applicable literature and expert opinions. Within the
context of the obtained results, it was intended to design a smart
toy and provide the children with the benefits by use of a toy. The
first iteration of the smart toy concept was created in response
to the needs identified. Preschool teachers tested and analyzed
the first version of the smart toy. The toy was tested in terms of
design and usability, and the smart toy’s flaws were discovered.
Using the collected data, design changes were made, and the last
version of the smart toy design was developed.
To support children’s acquisition of color concepts, a prototype
toy was designed and developed. The toy is made up of four big
and four small teddy bears in various colors. With the aid of RFID
technology, the smart toy can identify and verbalize the colors of
small toys brought closer to it.
Teachers were interviewed about the prototype. It was stated
that the prototype design was effective in supporting color learn-
ing in younger age groups, but was insufficient in scope to sup-
port concept learning. Besides the concept of color, the inclusion
of concepts such as shapes and animals in the scope was sug-
gested by the teachers. In the prototype, a screenless interaction
was preferred, with the approach that children playing with
a toy without a screen would be more appropriate for their
development. However, since learning this situation limits the
number of concepts to be supported, it was concluded that it
would be appropriate to switch to a screened design. It was
stated that the prototype toy does not provide an individualized
learning process. Teachers suggested developing a toy that offers
an individualized learning experience.
The following suggestions were determined regarding the in-
creased usability of the toy: increasing the size of the toy; design-
ing it in a humanoid appearance to make it more attractive and to
evoke a sense of friendship; increasing the sound level so that it
can be used in crowded environments; adding voice control and
touch control features instead of physical buttons; and, increasing
the variety of concepts taught by the toy. The shortcomings and
improvements identified as a result of the analysis served as a
guide for the final toy’s development.
The final version of the smart toy was obtained by modifying
the visual design of the prototype toy, increasing the number
of concepts taught, and increasing the interaction choices, all in
accordance with the teachers’ opinions. The general components
of the developed smart toy are shown in Fig. 2.
‘‘Maya’’ is the name given to the created smart toy. As seen in
Fig. 2, the toy includes activities for teaching children number,
form, color, and animal names. During the toy’s development
process, it was aimed to create an intelligent tutoring system us-
ing artificial intelligence techniques, with this intelligent tutoring
system knowing who, what, and how to teach and assisting the
child in learning at his/her own pace.
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
Fig. 1. Iterative design and development process of the smart toy.
Fig. 2. Components of the smart toy.
2.5.1. Content and application of concept learning activities of the
toy
Maya is a smart toy with learning activities developed to teach
children the concepts of number, shape, color and animal names.
The aim of these activities is to enable the child to learn at his
or her own pace of learning and self-learning. Activities consist
of two parts: learning and practice. When Maya is given the
command to start the game, the concept selection menu shown
in Fig. 3 is displayed on the toy’s touch screen.
After selecting the concept to be learned from this menu,
the section selection menu shown in Fig. 4, where learning or
application sections can be selected, is displayed on the screen.
In the learning section, the child is expected to bring the toy
representing a concept to Maya, watch the short video that tells
what the concept is, and receive information. The video of the
concept is shown on the screen and the most prominent feature
of the concept is highlighted. These videos are played on the
screen, with the toy being zoomed in. For example, the video that
opens when the red toy is shown to Maya is called ‘‘the color of
this toy is red’’, and the red color is shown on the screen. Using
RFID technology, Maya recognizes small toys representing colors,
animals and shapes. Designed concept toys are shown in Fig. 5.
In the learning section, the child can do as many repetitions
as he or she wants without time constraints and can also move
to the implementation stage whenever he or she wants.
In the application section, the child is expected to find and
show the toy belonging to the concept Maya said. In the first
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
phase of the application activity, the concepts that the child does
not know are determined, and learning activities are carried out
by showing the child tales, songs and videos related to these
concepts. In the second phase of the implementation activity,
questions are not asked concerning learned concepts, but rather
focus is on concepts determined to not have been learned. At the
end of the second stage, the concepts that cannot be learned with
tales and songs are explained. Fig. 6 shows the activity of applying
color concepts.
Each correct answer is given feedback with the sound of
applause and some animation. For the wrong answers, animation
informing the child that the answer is wrong is displayed. Chil-
dren who know all the questions of a given concept are directed
to other concept activities, while children who do not reach
adequate learning levels are encouraged to repeat the learning
section.
In the numbers teaching section, children are given tales and
songs about numbers. In the practice section, children stick small
red balls on a curtain. Maya detects and tells the number of
balls she detects with her camera. Fig. 7 shows the application
of numbers.
Children continue the activity by increasing or decreasing the
balls on the curtain. The child can experiment as much as he/she
wants.
It must be emphasized that Maya was designed to provide
motivation for the sake of enhancing its instructive character.
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347

Fig. 3. Concept selection menu.

Fig. 4. Section selection menu.

Fig. 5. Concept toys.

Akar (2018) stated that addressing a child by name means valuing
the child, and that the person addressed by name is easily accus-
tomed to, and adapts to, the given environment. For this reason,
Maya has been developed to meet its user, remember him/her
later, and address him/her by name during the activity process.
One’s name is a value that the individual has and cares about.
The numerical data of the child’s concept learning process are
recorded together with the child’s name. This data can be shared
with the child’s family and teachers. At the end of the game,
parents or teachers can view in detail how many correct and how
many wrong answers the child has made for a given concept with
the help of an app developed to work on the Android operating
system. In addition, the toy can send game results to a defined
e-mail address.
The voice assistant feature was added to enhance Maya’s ac-
cessibility. Considering that preschool children are illiterate, the
aim of this feature is to explain the game’s instructions to the
5
child audibly and to ask the child questions through conversa-
tional interaction. The child can manage the toy by speaking and
start learning activities through voice command.
2.5.2. Stylistic features of Maya
Smart toy Maya looks like a humanoid robot. Small toys rep-
resenting different concepts are used together with Maya in
concept learning activities. The preschool teachers’ recommenda-
tions, the age level of the children, the physical characteristics,
and the placement of the toy’s hardware elements were all taken
into account in the design of the toy’s visual features. Fig. 6 shows
the smart toy Maya.
The body of Maya is similar to the bodily features of a 5-year-
old child, though it is half-sized, not having a lower body. In the
toy design, interactive features are also taken into account besides
the visual features.
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
Fig. 6. Color concept application activity.
2.5.3. Technical features of Maya
Maya was developed by assembling hardware components
and programming these components to function properly.
2.5.3.1 Maya’s hardware components A Raspberry Pi 3 computer
was used in the development of Maya. The Raspberry Pi has USB,
HDMI, camera inputs and GPIO pins. Due to these input–output
units, a screen, camera, sensors, and electronic modules can be
easily used with it. The toy’s body features a 7-in. touch screen
that can play videos and allows for the selection of activities. The
RFID card reader is located at the bottom of the screen. The card
reader reads the ID numbers of the cards inside the small toys to
determine which concept the toy belongs to. A camera is placed at
the top of the screen. The camera is used for object detection and
facial recognition operations. The LED lights on the toy’s mouth
create a speaking effect while the toy is flashing and talking. The
head part of the toy was prepared with 3D printing and the face
is humanoid. Inmoov open source robot project drawings were
Fig. 7. The concept of numbers application activity.
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
used for 3D printing of the robot’s head. Mouth, head and eye
movements are provided by servo motors. A microphone and
speaker were used to allow the user to give voice commands and
talk to the toy.
2.5.3.2 Maya’s software components Maya’s ability to interact
with children, to communicate, to know which concept and how
to teach which child is realized through artificial intelligence
software. The software needed to introduce these features to
Maya is written in Python, which has a structure suitable for
the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. Python libraries were
used for image processing, video playback, creating the user
interface, and translating text into sound and vice versa. Maya
uses its camera to perform real-time image processing and facial
recognition with the help of OpenCV. Haar Cascade classifier is
used to identify the face in the captured picture frame. The haar
Cascade classifier is pre-trained to introduce the human facial
structure. After face detection, 30 photo frames of this face are
taken and a data set is created. The elements of the dataset are
matched with an ID number defined for each user. Maya learns
the faces of children by training deep learning’s artificial neural
network. An artificial neural network is an artificial intelligence
technique that enables learning by evaluating experiences (Uğur
& Kınacı, 2006). The faces detected by the camera compare with
the faces in the dataset and the person is recognized. 1500 pieces
of preliminary facial image data from 50 individuals were used to
assess the accuracy output of the facial recognition system. 75%
of the images added to the data collection were used as training
images, while 25% were used as test images. The accuracy ratio
is the number of correctly labeled samples divided by the total
number of samples. The system’s facial recognition accuracy rate
was calculated as 96%.
In order for the child to communicate by talking to Maya and
to direct it with voice commands, the voice must be converted
into writing and the writing to sound. gTTS (Google Text-to-
Speech), Speech Recognition and PyAudio libraries were used for
this. gTTS provides a fluent, smooth transition and natural speech.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms, a sub-branch of
artificial intelligence, were used to help Maya understand con-
versations and to answer questions.
The Tkinter tool was used to create the graphical interface dis-
played on Maya’s screen. The width and height of these buttons
were designed in the largest possible size, associated with pic-
tures that clearly describe each game, and no written statement
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
Table 2
Teacher opinions about the design of the smart toy.
Theme Sub-Themes Codes
Teacher opinions about the Visual design Drawing attention
design of the smart toy. Size
Physical structure
Instructional design Individuality
İnstructive
Group training
Multimedia design Audio
Video
User interface design Accessibility
User friendly
Age suitability
is used in consideration of the fact that children in preschool do
not know how to read.
The most advanced of the software that provides students
with appropriate methods are intelligent teaching systems where
artificial intelligence and computer technologies are used to-
gether (Almurshidi & Naser, 2017). Using the developed intellec-
tual tutoring system algorithm, the correct and incorrect numbers
are determined in the application section of animal, shape and
color activities, and the concepts that the child cannot learn are
determined. In the second phase of the event, concept education
is carried on by focusing on concepts that the child does not
know.
In the game developed to teach numbers, the image taken
instantly from the Raspberry Pi camera to determine the number
of red balls on the screen is processed with the OpenCV library
and the Haar Cascade classifier. The number of balls adhering to
the curtain is separated from those on the ground and is counted.
An Android application was developed so that parents or
preschool teachers can follow the learning process and examine
numerical data relating to the learning process. The Android app
was prepared with App Inventor.
The content of the application includes information about
which concepts the child answered correctly and how many
questions were answered incorrectly. Raspberry Pi uploads the
data to the internet server and that data is accessed via Android.
3. Results
The design dimension of the artificial intelligence based smart
toy, which was developed to teach concepts to children, was
evaluated by the teachers during the interview. Visual design,
Instructional Design, Multimedia Design, User Interface Design
subthemes and codes related to the theme of teachers’ opinions
about the design of the smart toy have been created. The theme
and sub-themes are shown in Table 2.
While the toy capably attracts children’s attention in terms of
its visual design and is sufficient in size, it was stated that the
perceived missing parts of the smart toy, which has a humanoid
appearance, should be completed. Some views on the Visual
Design subtheme are as follows:
T3: ‘‘The toy’s appearance is remarkable. It answers questions, its
eyes move, it has a humanoid face’’.
T5: ‘‘I like the overall look of the toy, but I think it has some
shortcomings. For example, the toy has a head and body, but it is
good for body integrity to have feet as well’’.
When the toy was evaluated in terms of instructional design,
it was stated that the toy was good for both group activities
and individualized education, and that it can provide learning by
having fun. Some views on the subtheme of Instructional Design
include:
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
T2: ‘‘One of the most important features of the toy is that it sup-
ports individual learning. Providing the child to learn according
to his own pace, determining what he cannot learn and arranging
the learning process, and giving the child unlimited opportunities
to repeat are indicators of individual learning material’’.
T6: ‘‘When you look at the working logic of the toy, you can see
that it is designed for individual learning, but I think it is also very
suitable for group activities. During the activity, children can help
and learn from each other’’.
When the toy was evaluated within the scope of multimedia
design, it was stated that the visual and audio elements used are
suitable for the purpose and are interesting. Some views on the
Multimedia Design subtheme are as follows:
T7: ‘‘Speaking of the toy, answering the questions aloud, explain-
ing what to do to the child by talking makes it easier for the
child to use the toy and makes the toy more interesting. The
voice of speech is very clear. The sound level should be adjustable
considering that it will also be used in crowded environments.’’
T8: ‘‘The tales and songs shown to the child about the concepts
fit the purpose. Increasing the number of these videos would
be good for diversity. Videos shown to students who answered
questions correctly both entertain the students and increase their
willingness to continue the activity and thereby garner further
applause’’.
When evaluating the user interface design of the toy, it was
stated that it has the characteristics of being user-friendly, ac-
cessible and age-appropriate, and the following suggestions were
provided to increase the usability:
T1: ‘‘The fact that the toy tells the child what to do in the game
and the simple and convenient use of the touch screen show
together that the toy is user-friendly and accessible’’.
T4: ‘‘Children get bored quickly at that age, and they can’t read
yet. I think the most important criterion for game preference is
age-appropriateness. It’s good there’s no writing in the game. I
particularly liked the teaching of numbers. The kid can be very
active in the game. I think the question–answer section was a bit
long because the number of animals in the part where animals
are taught is too high. This can be shortened a little so that
the children are not bored, or the number of questions can be
determined accordingly by adding an age option. Thus, the age
suitability of the toy would increase’’.
4. Discussion
In terms of its visual design aspect, the smart toy has been
found by teachers to attract the attention of children and en-
courage them to learn. Öztürk (2001) states that children are
interested in stimulants in the classroom and that they need
to discover a stronger stimulus to attract their attention. It is
thought that the smart toy can perform the first step of educa-
tion, drawing attention by acting as a strong stimulus with the
physical and functional features that children have not previ-
ously discovered. Considering the age group and average physical
characteristics of the children, the toy’s dimensions were found
appropriate. Tanaka and Kimura (2010) found that children are
more motivated to interact with humanoid robots that are larger
than traditional toys but smaller in size than the child itself. It
can be said that the toy developed in the described dimensions
is effective in the child’s willingness to play. The lack of legs,
ears and hair of the toy has been expressed by the teachers as
the characteristics of the toy that need to be developed from a
physical point of view. Having a person’s face and body shape
M. Akdeniz and F. Özdinç
instead of a cartoon character will enable the toy to appeal to
children of both sexes. Dinella, Weisgram, and Fulcher (2017)
stated that the rate at which gender-neutral toys are preferred
by boys and girls is greater than that of gendered toys such as
dolls or cars. This increases the preferability of the smart toy.
The toy stands out as being a suitable material for individu-
alized education. Gordon et al. (2016) argued that technological
training materials should be individualized so that no matter how
improved, technological training can be no more successful than
individual education. It is expected that the smart toy, designed
as an intelligent tutoring system, will be used as an individualized
educational material with the ability to determine who, what,
and how to teach, and to allow children to learn at their own
pace. Intelligent teaching systems enable individualized educa-
tion regardless of time and space. In particular, the importance of
the intellectual training system is better understood today when
Covid-19 is an epidemic and formal education is not possible.
Keleş (2007) stated that the teacher and the computer could be
replaced by developments in the field of artificial intelligence.
Considering certain problems that may be caused by problematic
use of the Internet, it turns out that the intelligent tutoring
system should work independently thereof. In addition, consid-
ering the user age group, it is practical to design the intellectual
tutoring system in the form of smart toys, rather than in the form
of a traditional computer.
In order to increase the willingness of children to play and
continue a game, an increase in the diversity of songs and fairy
tales explaining the concepts was suggested. Pillay (2002) stated
that the motivation source in games is entertainment and that
people can gain necessary information by having fun. Rüzgar
(2005) stated that elements addressing the visual and auditory
senses in technological educational tools are effective in making
children repeat the lesson and ensuring continuity of interac-
tion with the material. In this context, increasing the songs and
fairy tales in the game is expected to make the material more
entertaining and thus increase the motivation.
Preschool teachers believe that the lack of written instructions
and the perception of voice commands make the toy easier to use,
that the screen size of the toy and the toy itself are large enough,
as well as that the sound of the toy is at a sufficient level and is
clear, thereby increasing accessibility. Chiou, Schroeder, and Craig
(2019) found that in their studies on virtual people, sound quality
does not affect learning significantly, but it does affect other
perceptions of virtual people, such as trust. As a result of these
characteristics, the toy has been evaluated as age-appropriate and
useful. In order for the toy to appeal to any age group and for
children to be asked a number of questions according to their
age, it has been suggested that an option be placed on the user
interface for age selection.
In the deep learning method used for image processing, the
classification process accuracy rate depends on the excess num-
ber of image frames used for training (Rathi, 2018). Kın (2019)
stated that trying to process excess data by increasing the num-
ber of images would slow down the learning of the system.
Accordingly, as the number of people introduced to the smart
toy increases, the time required for recognition increases and the
system works more slowly. This situation may cause the child to
get bored and cease the activity. Developing an algorithm that
will delete the children who do not play the game for a long time
from the toy’s memory would enable the toy to perform the facial
recognition process faster.
Aktaş and Doğan (2011) stated that by adding a new module
to the intellectual tutoring system, the static structure between
the learner module and the tutorial module could be eliminated.
With a module to be developed for Maya during the outbreak
of Covid-19, the teacher can access the system remotely and
continuously update the educational content with an interface
program to ensure that children’s education can be maintained
in accordance with the gains.
8
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 29 (2021) 100347
5. Conclusion and implications
This study aims to examine a smart toy design and develop-
ment process. As a result of the results obtained for this purpose
and the discussion of these results with the relevant literature, a
framework for smart toy design has been proposed.
In the framework of the findings obtained from the needs
analysis made in the form of teacher interviews and the literature
review, the characteristics that should be included in a good ed-
ucational smart toy were determined. Accordingly, a good smart
toy should be (Ekin, 2017; Kara, 2015; Zheng, Fan, & Chen, 2019)
• interactive, supported with audio and visual elements, ap-
propriate for the age group, designed to take into account
children’s cognitive characteristics; capable of providing in-
dividual children with learning at his/her own pace.
In addition, it should have
• the appearance and content to attract children’s attention, a
3-D, physical structure that children can touch, rather than
a computer or tablet.
Finally, a smart toy should
• provide children with individualized learning opportunities,
allow children to control the game process and game mode.
6. Limitations
Preschool teachers constituted the participants of this study,
which examines the design and development process of the smart
toy Maya. Developing the smart toy with a participatory design
process involving child participants would enrich the work. The
participant group was limited to eight teachers, as it collected
data from the participants in three stages in the development
process.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This study was undertaken as the first author’s master’s thesis,
which was supervised by the second author and supported by
Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Afyon Kocatepe
University [Project Number: 18.FENBIL.68].
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