Socially assistive robots are increasingly used in educational contexts, particularly to support children’s learning. This study investigates children’s engagement and perception of a humanoid robot (NAO) through two paradigms: (1) Reorder a Story, where children help the robot sequence story frames, and (2) Storytelling, where children narrate a story to the robot. Thirty-four typically developing children participated, randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Robot perception was assessed using the Godspeed questionnaire (focusing on likeability, anthropomorphism, social intelligence, and trust), and engagement was evaluated via the Martinovic Observation Scale and interaction duration. Results show that while both paradigms received high likeability ratings, Reorder a Story elicited significantly higher engagement and perceptions of social intelligence and trust. Engagement scores were not influenced by gender or educational level, although older children perceived higher robot social intelligence in the Reorder a Story task. Correlation analyses revealed a trend between higher perceived social intelligence and lower attention in the Storytelling paradigm, suggesting potential distraction due to the robot’s social presence. These findings highlight the potential use of these paradigms with children with neurodevelopmental disorders.