What is SoKids?
SoKids is a research-driven game project developed by a student team at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in collaboration with the Center for Transformational Play (CTP).
Working closely with early childhood researchers and educators at the CMU Children’s School under the guidance of Dr. Catarina Vales, SoKids explores how digital games can function as playful research tools to study how preschool-aged children perceive and make sense of social categories.
At its core, SoKids asks:
Can games serve as reliable assessment tools while still feeling like play?
Why This Project Matters?
Traditional research with young children often relies on:
- Direct questioning
- One-on-one interviews
- Highly structured lab settings
These methods can be costly, time-intensive, and dependent on children’s verbal explanations, which may not fully reflect their underlying perceptions.
SoKids approaches this challenge differently.
Rather than asking children to explain their thinking, the game embeds measurement directly into playful interaction. By observing structured choices, spatial positioning, and interaction patterns, the system gathers behavioral signals in ways that feel natural and developmentally appropriate.
Our Approach
SoKids is designed around three core principles:
Play First
The experience resembles everyday imaginative play rather than a formal test. There are no right or wrong answers, no evaluative feedback, and no explicit labeling of social categories.
Embedded Assessment
Measurement is built directly into gameplay. Carefully structured decision points allow researchers to compare interaction patterns across players while preserving children’s sense of agency.
Ethical Design
The system is intentionally structured to avoid teaching, reinforcing, or shaping beliefs. The goal is assessment or intervention. All design decisions are guided by developmental psychology research and ethical research frameworks.
What We Are Building
SoKids is a tablet-based game designed for children ages 3–5.
The system:
- Uses age-appropriate visual interaction
- Minimizes language demands
- Captures structured interaction data
- Reduces logistical and financial barriers compared to traditional research methods
By lowering cost and operational overhead, SoKids aims to make early childhood research more scalable and accessible