Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>From rough-and-tumble play to carrying objects together, children frequently engage in physical interactions. Adults use such interactions to exchange motion plans and enhance joint performance; but whether children possess this haptic communication ability, and how it relates to sensorimotor development, is not known. To address these questions, we developed a dedicated paradigm for school-aged children and conducted a study with 56 children (28 dyads, 5-17 years) using a gamified wrist-tracking task while mechanically coupled via a dual robotic interface. We found that tracking error decreased with age and was further reduced when children were connected to a partner. As in adults, connecting to a more-skilled partner improved performance, whereas connecting to a less-skilled partner did not significantly degrade it. These results indicate that school-aged children can exploit haptic communication during cooperative action despite their still-developing sensorimotor skills.</p>