Interactive Simulation-Based Learning Tools for Training Children’s Helpline Counsellors

Abstract

Children around the world contact children’s helplines when facing emotional, social, or psychological difficulties. These helplines provide confidential support via phone or textbased conversations, where children can share concerns ranging from everyday worries to serious safety issues. Helplines rely on skilled volunteer counsellors who can empathise, structure conversations, and help children find solutions. These helplines train a large number of volunteer counsellors annually to keep up with the volume of conversations they receive. For example, De Kindertelefoon in the Netherlands handled on average around 900 conversations per day and trained 300 new volunteers in 2024. Traditional training methods, such as role-playing, are valuable but resource-intensive, time-consuming, and dependent on the availability of trainers. To address these challenges, interactive simulation-based agents offer a promising extension to existing training practices by enabling scalable, safe, and consistent training. Such agents can simulate a virtual child with whom trainees can practise counselling skills without involving real children. However, current solutions mainly focus on observable interaction behaviour, while paying less attention to clarifying the motivations underlying the child’s actions.....