CONCEPT
Effort-Contingent Progression
The design principle that AI capability should be conditional on demonstrated cognitive engagement — full support for children who articulate, redirection for children who seek to bypass the work entirely.
Effort-contingent progression is the fourth of the five principles of developmentally aware AI design. It addresses a specific failure mode: the child who enters 'do my homework' and receives a completed assignment has exercised nothing. A developmentally aware tool can distinguish between this input and a sophisticated engagement prompt, and can respond accordingly. A child who enters a thoughtful question has demonstrated the articulation work that scaffolding should build on; the tool can provide its full capability. A child who seeks to bypass the cognitive work entirely receives redirection — not prohibition, but a prompt that returns the cognitive engagement to her before the tool's capability is deployed. The principle aligns the tool's behavior with the child's engagement rather than with her expressed desires, and preserves the conditions under which articulation itself develops as a cognitive skill.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The principle rests on the developmental insight that articulation — translating intention into language precise enough to direct a capable tool