Parenting Today
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the technology landscape and the way kids learn faster than many people anticipate.
Whether a child asks Alexa to name the planets in the solar system or does a Google search asking for the function of the three branches of government, and Gemini replies with a summary of various sources, AI assistants are helping students of all ages broaden their knowledge.
Getting a “fast answer” from a chatbot doesn’t necessarily help a student learn, however. And generative AI models are still evolving and are not perfect. That’s why ChatGPT offers the disclaimer, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”
Parents and educators play a vital role in guiding children’s AI interactions and developing essential skills. Here’s how.
AI Lacks Social Interactions That Shape Child Development
Children are growing up alongside AI systems that their parents never had.
While AI agents can interact with kids and pause to ask questions about the characters and how they feel when reading a story, for example, they can never replace how deeper interactions with parents, teachers, and peers shape a child’s development, Assistant Professor of Harvard Education Xing Yu advised in a Harvard EdCast.
In her studies, Yu found that children could learn from interacting with AI — but with a caveat.
“When children talk to a human, they’re more likely to steer the conversation, ask follow-up questions and share their own thoughts. And those are all important elements that are critical for their language development. And these kind of child-driven aspects of conversation are where AI still falls short,” Yu said.
AI models lack shared experiences and empathy, and students thrive when they engage with a person they can relate to and vice versa. AI can’t offer this companionship, and exchanging information with AI doesn’t foster a real relationship.
Critical Thinking Skills and AI Literacy are Vital
Because ChatGPT and AI models present a synthesized answer to a prompt that combines information from multiple sources, some children blindly trust what the AI says is true.
In the real world, students should reflect and use critical thinking to decide whether information from social media is credible before they share it.
This extends to AI, and Yu noted that AI developers and educators should organize workshops and programs to teach students how AI works, enabling them to evaluate the answers AI models provide.
Developers should also add warnings that AI might generate misinformation.
In building a child’s AI literacy, parents should stress that AI is a program, not a person. Developers could also design prompts for AI models to include parents and children together during a discussion.
Yu noted that in her AI research, doing this helps children’s language development and offers opportunities for shared activities to strengthen family bonds.
Essential Skills to Encourage in an AI-Driven World
If a student enters a prompt into ChatGPT and a chatbot writes a history essay for them or solves a math problem, they aren’t learning how to do the work.
A crucial part of learning is struggling and working through an assignment to complete it. Many teachers have banned the use of AI in classrooms for this reason — and parents should monitor their child’s AI use in this sense.
Furthermore, as AI automates more tasks, parents can encourage kids to hone and develop these essential skills, according to Psychology Today:
- Communication, like active listening, understanding people’s motivations, and asking good questions to gather information
- Critical thinking in using logical reasoning and finding the strong and weak parts of arguments
- Mental flexibility, which includes having the ability and willingness to learn and be creative
- Agile thinking, like testing and improving ideas through trial and error
- Developing interpersonal relationships and practicing empathy
- Teamwork and conflict resolution, including working through disagreements and acknowledging that differences exist and don’t need an instant fix.
- Self-awareness and self-management so kids recognize their own strengths.
- Goals achievement in choosing, setting, and achieving milestones so kids develop confidence
- Entrepreneurship to build courage and promote risk-taking
- Digital fluency, particularly recognizing the difference between credible and non-credible sources and information
- Understanding cybersecurity so kids don’t give personal information to bad actors
Learning Is an Ongoing Process
The list of skills above isn’t all-inclusive and shouldn’t overwhelm parents. The message is simple: Learning of all kinds is an ongoing process.
Parents can monitor their child’s AI interactions and be there to ask questions, challenge answers, and opinions, give kids pause to think, and provide tangible family support that AI can never give.
When kids learn to think critically, value differences, and work together, vital human interaction remains essential in navigating the vast, changing digital world.
