The Boundary Terrarium: An Embodied WebAR Prototype for Children's Social Boundary Learning

Abstract

Social boundaries are often not learned by children through explicit verbal instruction alone, but are gradually formed through bodily distance, interaction rhythm, waiting, stepping back, and responses from others. For children, questions such as how close they may approach, when they should wait, and how to repair an overly close interaction are usually implicit social rules. This study presents The Boundary Terrarium, a WebAR interaction prototype for children's social boundary learning. Drawing on distance-perception differences across three East Asian social contexts as design references, the project translates abstract interpersonal boundaries into three AR animal interactions that can be approached, withdrawn from, waited for, and repaired: the pufferfish represents a flexible boundary, the octopus represents a permeable boundary, and the hedgehog represents an invisible boundary. Through WebAR ground placement, camera-model distance calculation, approach-velocity detection, DeviceMotion-based shaking recognition, prompts, learning cards, and a boundary archive, the system converts children's bodily behaviors into immediate visual feedback and reviewable learning memories. The study also uses field observation in a school setting as a preliminary evaluation method, adapting the constructs of inCLASS and PKBS-2 into two AR-contextualized observation scales. Preliminary data indicate stable performance in task engagement, peer interaction, behavioral control, and frustration regulation. In comparison, self-regulation, social interaction understanding, and social independence require further strengthening through everyday social scenarios and prompt-fading mechanisms. The findings suggest that The Boundary Terrarium can translate invisible social-distance rules into an embodied learning experience that is perceivable, repairable, and observable.