The proliferation of generative AI in education has not automatically led to the empowerment of children's creativity. The prevalent "prompt-response" model often positions children as passive consumers, risking the homogenization of their unique imagination and narrative voices. This study proposes and investigates "Child-as-Guide," a novel human-AI collaboration paradigm that reconfigures the child as the narrative authority and the AI as a responsive partner to their unstructured play-based expressions (e.g., spontaneous drawings, block-building, improvised narratives). Through a mixed-methods study integrating participatory design and educational experiments, we co-created a dynamic environment for multimodal storytelling with children. Our findings indicate that this paradigm effectively fosters children's narrative agency and authorship, transforming AI from a ghostwriter into an extension and mirror of their imagination. It not only enhances the complexity and originality of children's narrative expressions but also cultivates their dynamic visual literacy through playful engagement. We argue that the "Child-as-Guide" philosophy offers a critical framework for preserving and empowering children's artistic and narrative expression in the age of AI.

Authors:
Ting Xu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China
Xian Xu, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Xu Ting is a doctoral student majoring in Computer Media Art at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), and she is also a seasoned media professional and screenwriter.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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