Awareness of toddlers' initial cognitive experiences with virtual reality

In this study we used Virtual Reality technology to simulate a toddler’s first few days’ experiences in daycare and improve the caregiver’s understanding of their state of mind. The virtual worlds were developed in accordance with the toddler’s way of thinking and from her/his cognitive and visual viewpoint. The aim of the research was to investigate whether the caregiver’s awareness to the cognitive experiences that the toddler undergoes in his first days in kindergarten improves through a VR simulation of a toddler’s world. We simulated six cognitive elements of a toddler: object constancy; trial and error; perspective of height; perspective of things; egocentricity; and imagination. The participants in this study were 40 (female) caregivers who work with infants aged 6 months to 4 years old in private daycare. The findings indicate that experiencing a virtual world that reflects the real world of children improves the caregiver’s awareness to the cognitive experiences that the toddler undergoes in her/his first days in a kindergarten or daycare.