Analysis of the perceptions and needs of parents of infants and toddlers in artificial intelligence(AI) education

The purpose of this study is to examine parents' perceptions and demands for artificial intelligence education for infants and toddlers, and to find the right direction for artificial intelligence education for infants and toddlers based on this. To this end, a survey was conducted on 355 parents with children aged 0 to 5 from November 15 to December 20, 2024. A frequency analysis was conducted using the SPSS 29.0 program for the collected data. The results of the study are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the perceptions of parents of infants and toddlers about artificial intelligence education, most parents knew about the terms and concepts of artificial intelligence in general. Second, as a result of analyzing the perceptions of parents of infants and toddlers about artificial intelligence education, it was found that they knew about the concept of artificial intelligence education, but did not have much experience with it. However, they were positively aware of the necessity of artificial intelligence education for infants and toddlers. Third, as a result of analyzing the needs of parents of infants and toddlers for artificial intelligence education, the expansion of educational data and infrastructure and support for infant-led play were the most demanded in the direction of the development of artificial intelligence education, and the necessity of parent education related to artificial intelligence was also highly recognized. Based on these results, it is expected that artificial intelligence education will be materialized in the future, appropriately applied to early childhood education institutions, and play-based artificial intelligence education for infants and toddlers who will live in the AI era will be activated.