CHILDREN'S INTERACTION WITH AI TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE DIGITALIZATION ERA

Technological development, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI), has brought significant changes to various aspects of life, including education and children's language development. AI is now integrated into various educational platforms such as YouTube Kids, Lingo Kids, Bing, and official platforms owned by certain institutions, offering a more interactive language learning experience. Traditionally, language acquisition occurred through direct social interaction, but now children also interact with non-human entities like AI, which is capable of providing real-time feedback. However, AI cannot fully replace human interaction, which is rich in social and emotional context. Another emerging challenge is the potential increase in screen time, which can negatively impact children's language development. This research will further analyze children's interaction with AI and its impact on their language development in the era of digitalization. The study was conducted at the CBC Mawaddah Warrahmah Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education institution in Jambi Province. This is a qualitative study that uses observation and interviews to obtain data. From the data collected, it is known that children have been interacting with AI-based technology from the age of one to four years old. Consequently, AI is not a new concept for these children. The interactions they have had impact aspects of their language development, namely phonology (sound imitation), lexicon (vocabulary), syntax (sentence patterns), and pragmatics. All the observed effects on these linguistic aspects are influenced by the stimulus, response, and reinforcement received by the children during their interaction with the AI-based technology.