Tinker Tales: Supporting Child-AI Collaboration through Co-Creative Storytelling with Educational Scaffolding

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Choi, Nayoung, Hong, Jiseung, Cyebukayire, Peace, Choi, Ikseon, Choi, Jinho D.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Choi, Nayoung
Hong, Jiseung
Cyebukayire, Peace
Choi, Ikseon
Choi, Jinho D.
author_facet Choi, Nayoung
Hong, Jiseung
Cyebukayire, Peace
Choi, Ikseon
Choi, Jinho D.
contents Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly framed as a collaborative partner in creative activities, yet children's interactions with AI have largely been studied in AI-led instructional settings rather than co-creative collaboration. This leaves open questions about how children can meaningfully engage with AI through iterative co-creation. We present Tinker Tales, a tangible storytelling system designed with narrative and social-emotional scaffolding to support child-AI collaboration. The system combines a physical storytelling board, NFC-embedded toys representing story elements (e.g., characters, places, items, and emotions), and a mobile app that mediates child-AI interaction. Children shape and refine stories by placing and moving story elements and interacting with the AI through tangible and voice-based interaction. We conducted an exploratory user study with 10 children to examine how they interacted with Tinker Tales. Our findings show that children treated the AI as an attentive, responsive collaborator, while scaffolding supported coherent narrative refinement without diminishing children's agency.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_04109
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tinker Tales: Supporting Child-AI Collaboration through Co-Creative Storytelling with Educational Scaffolding
Choi, Nayoung
Hong, Jiseung
Cyebukayire, Peace
Choi, Ikseon
Choi, Jinho D.
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly framed as a collaborative partner in creative activities, yet children's interactions with AI have largely been studied in AI-led instructional settings rather than co-creative collaboration. This leaves open questions about how children can meaningfully engage with AI through iterative co-creation. We present Tinker Tales, a tangible storytelling system designed with narrative and social-emotional scaffolding to support child-AI collaboration. The system combines a physical storytelling board, NFC-embedded toys representing story elements (e.g., characters, places, items, and emotions), and a mobile app that mediates child-AI interaction. Children shape and refine stories by placing and moving story elements and interacting with the AI through tangible and voice-based interaction. We conducted an exploratory user study with 10 children to examine how they interacted with Tinker Tales. Our findings show that children treated the AI as an attentive, responsive collaborator, while scaffolding supported coherent narrative refinement without diminishing children's agency.
title Tinker Tales: Supporting Child-AI Collaboration through Co-Creative Storytelling with Educational Scaffolding
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04109