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Building Foundations: AI Literacy for Young Children
Book chapter

Building Foundations: AI Literacy for Young Children

Chris Chalmers, Annette Woods and Amanda Levido
Artificial Intelligence for Advancing Education Quality and Inclusion: Practices Across Educational Settings, pp.175-192
Advances in Artificial Intelligence in Education, Springer Nature Switzerland, Volume 4
05/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-12174-5_10
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications

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Abstract

AI education AI literacy Artificial intelligence Early childhood education
Recent research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has emphasised the growing importance of AI literacy, especially as generative AI systems such as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have become increasingly prevalent. This chapter presents a systematic review of 140 articles on AI in K-12 education, with a specific focus on nine articles that address AI literacy in early childhood education. The review highlights the importance of developing AI literacy from an early age, preparing children for their current and future use of AI. ‘Big Ideas’ related to AI literacy are identified, including AI Concepts, Practices, and Perspectives. The chapter examines AI education frameworks such as the Five Big Ideas in AI and explores teaching methods, including the project-based learning approach, used to introduce young children to AI systems. This systematic review also highlights the reported challenges associated with developing AI literacy with young children. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future directions for AI literacy, aiming to build foundations for young learners. It also identifies gaps in the current literature that future research studies should address to further focus on developing AI literacy with young children.

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