Researchers from École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have developed a robot that helps children learn to write by becoming their pupil, improving its penmanship as they do. Armed with the knowledge that children tend to learn better when they teach their new-found skills to others, Swiss researchers have enlisted the help of a humanoid robot that improves along with them. This CoWriter system has been well received in tests with school children aged six to eight, where students "teach" the robot to improve its penmanship and see the robot's improved performance reflected in their own handwriting.The idea is that children who are struggling to form letters on their own need a boost to their dwindling self-esteem and motivation. Without someone – or something – to teach, they are likely to eventually lose interest entirely, with knock-on effects that could stay with them throughout their entire education and into adulthood.