#503: Incorporating Young Children’s Values Through Laddering Methodology: Examples from Early Literacy and AI

Various methods from instructional design and design-based research are used to refine and iterate educational technologies, but empirical methods to support initial designs, especially with young children, can be challenging. We applied Laddering Interviews as a method and designed two studies: 1) young children’s perspective on AI generated avatar and 2) young children’s perspective towards reading apps. We present the design and analysis process of the laddering interview and apply the Attribute–Consequence–Value (ACV) framework to illustrate how children’s responses reveal connections between specific features, their perceived outcomes, and underlying values. Together, these cases offer methodological insights for child-centered HCI and early literacy learning sciences research.