XR Design Framework for Early Childhood Education

TL;DR

This paper introduces the AHD framework to evaluate XR in early childhood education, highlighting safety risks and developmental considerations through a comprehensive review of existing studies.

Contribution

It presents the AHD framework for modeling XR interactions in young children and provides a systematic review of 111 studies to identify research gaps.

Findings

Safety and security risks are under-researched.

Short-term pedagogical benefits are well-studied.

Developmental parameters are crucial for XR design.

Abstract

Extended Reality in early childhood education presents high-risk challenges due to children's rapid developmental changes. While augmented and virtual reality offer immersive pedagogical benefits, they often impose excessive cognitive load or sensory conflict. We introduce the Augmented Human Development (AHD) framework to model these interactions through cognitive, sensory, environmental, and developmental parameters. To ground this framework, we conducted a Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) of 111 peer-reviewed studies involving children aged 3 - 8. Our findings, interpreted through the AHD lens, reveal a critical "risk vs. attention gap," where high-impact safety and security risks remain under-researched compared to short-term pedagogical gains.