This workshop provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange on the role of shyness in early communicative development. Organised through collaboration between Paderborn University in Germany and Waseda University in Japan and the event addresses how children’s temperament, and in particular their shyness, shapes both verbal and nonverbal communication across cultures.
Shyness is a prevalent temperamental trait that influences how children approach or withdraw from social situations. While often studied as a constraint on participation, it also manifests in specific multimodal behaviours such as reduced gesture use, gaze aversion, or self-adaptors. These behaviours are culturally patterned and can be interpreted differently in Japanese and European contexts. For example, reserved behaviour may be seen as socially adaptive in Japan, whereas in many Western contexts expressiveness is valued as a sign of competence. Exploring these cultural contrasts requires expertise across psychology, psycholinguistics, anthropology, and human–robot interaction, which this workshop aims to bring together.
The programme combines keynote presentations with interactive data sessions. Topics include multimodal communication in assessment settings, the role of self-adaptors as potential indices of shyness, and broader phenomena such as gestalts and backchannels. Data sessions will allow participants to jointly examine empirical material on children’s and adults’ adaptor behaviours, fostering collaborative interpretation. On the second day, sessions will highlight the role of adaptive technologies, particularly child–robot interaction,
in providing controlled contexts for studying shy children’s responses.
In addition to showcasing current findings, the workshop will serve as a forum for developing hypotheses for the CULSHY project and identifying future research directions. By situating shyness within cultural and technological contexts, the event aims to deepen understanding of how temperament interacts with communicative behaviour and to promote sustainable international collaboration. Ultimately, the workshop seeks to advance developmental science while strengthening networks that link Germany and Japan
