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SoK: Understanding the Pedagogical, Health, Ethical, and Privacy Challenges of Extended Reality in Early Childhood Education

Supriya Khadka, Sanchari Das

TL;DR

A Systematization of Knowledge of 111 peer-reviewed studies with children aged 3-8 is conducted, quantifying how technical, pedagogical, health, privacy, and equity challenges arise in practice and offering a roadmap for Child-Centered XR that helps HCI researchers and educators move beyond novelty.

Abstract

Extended Reality (XR) combines dense sensing, real-time rendering, and close-range interaction, making its use in early childhood education both promising and high risk. To investigate this, we conduct a Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) of 111 peer-reviewed studies with children aged 3-8, quantifying how technical, pedagogical, health, privacy, and equity challenges arise in practice. We found that AR dominates the landscape (73%), focusing primarily on tablets or phones, while VR remains uncommon and typically relies on head mounted displays (HMDs). We integrate these quantitative patterns into a joint risk and attention matrix and an Augmented Human Development (AHD) model that link XR pipeline properties to cognitive load, sensory conflict, and access inequity. Finally, implementing a seven dimension coding scheme on a 0 - 2 scale, we obtain mean scholarly attention scores of 1.56 for pedagogy, 1.04 for privacy (primarily procedural consent), 0.96 for technical reliability, 0.92 for accessibility in low resource contexts, 0.81 for medical and health issues, 0.52 for accessibility for disabilities, and 0.14 for data security practices. This indicates that pedagogy receives the most systematic scrutiny, while data access practices is largely overlooked. We conclude by offering a roadmap for Child-Centered XR that helps HCI researchers and educators move beyond novelty to design systems that are developmentally aligned, secure by default, and accessible to diverse learners.

SoK: Understanding the Pedagogical, Health, Ethical, and Privacy Challenges of Extended Reality in Early Childhood Education

TL;DR

A Systematization of Knowledge of 111 peer-reviewed studies with children aged 3-8 is conducted, quantifying how technical, pedagogical, health, privacy, and equity challenges arise in practice and offering a roadmap for Child-Centered XR that helps HCI researchers and educators move beyond novelty.

Abstract

Extended Reality (XR) combines dense sensing, real-time rendering, and close-range interaction, making its use in early childhood education both promising and high risk. To investigate this, we conduct a Systematization of Knowledge (SoK) of 111 peer-reviewed studies with children aged 3-8, quantifying how technical, pedagogical, health, privacy, and equity challenges arise in practice. We found that AR dominates the landscape (73%), focusing primarily on tablets or phones, while VR remains uncommon and typically relies on head mounted displays (HMDs). We integrate these quantitative patterns into a joint risk and attention matrix and an Augmented Human Development (AHD) model that link XR pipeline properties to cognitive load, sensory conflict, and access inequity. Finally, implementing a seven dimension coding scheme on a 0 - 2 scale, we obtain mean scholarly attention scores of 1.56 for pedagogy, 1.04 for privacy (primarily procedural consent), 0.96 for technical reliability, 0.92 for accessibility in low resource contexts, 0.81 for medical and health issues, 0.52 for accessibility for disabilities, and 0.14 for data security practices. This indicates that pedagogy receives the most systematic scrutiny, while data access practices is largely overlooked. We conclude by offering a roadmap for Child-Centered XR that helps HCI researchers and educators move beyond novelty to design systems that are developmentally aligned, secure by default, and accessible to diverse learners.
Paper Structure (42 sections, 2 equations, 5 figures, 5 tables)

This paper contains 42 sections, 2 equations, 5 figures, 5 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method
  3. Search Strategy
  4. Screening and Selection Process
  5. Data Extraction and Management
  6. Analytical Framework
  7. Augmented Human Development
  8. Operational Dimensions
  9. Results
  10. Technical Limitations and Solutions (RQ1a)
  11. Device-Specific Failure Modes: The Bio-Technical Mismatch
  12. Infrastructural Barriers
  13. Strategies for Mitigation
  14. Pedagogical Integration Issues (RQ1b)
  15. The Child: Cognitive and Developmental Mismatches
  16. ...and 27 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: PRISMA Flow Diagram Illustrating the Study Identification and Selection Process.
  • Figure 2: Geographic Distribution of the 111 Included Studies.
  • Figure 3: Prevalence of Technical Challenges by Device Type.
  • Figure 4: Prevalence of Reported Health and Safety Risks by Device Type.
  • Figure 5: 'Risk Assessment Matrix' Mapping Scholarly Attention against Calculated Real-World Risk.