This generation is the peak of technology, and computer skills are almost required everywhere in the world. However, being able to speak to computers and instruct them is another necessary skill. Programming skills enable you to do things like;
- Cyber security
- Software engineering
- Creating webpages
- Creating cross platform apps.
If all this seems like too much to expect from a child, you’re probably right. However, kids can always start off with the simple aspects and later advance. Good enough, kids learn fast. The article below contains the benefits of coding to children at a tender age.
1. Computational thinking
Computational thinking is the kind of thinking where someone is able to break down a huge problem into small solvable tasks until they ultimately solve it.
So many times, we find ourselves in the middle of situations and problems that are definitely hard to solve. Sometimes we get scared, and before you know it, we’ve walked away. But here’s why coding can be a solution;
- Even the biggest and most sophisticated apps start with one simple line of code.
- Through coding, children learn to go systematically about their solutions to problems.
When everyone learns how to break down even those that seem like the world’s toughest problems, they’re almost unstoppable.
2. Critical thinking
While coding, there are so many mistakes made, so many errors to be corrected, so many bugs to be fixed. What you believed before you wrote your line of code, might not come out as the exact result.
Many people aren’t critical thinkers because their views are not challenged, or because they don’t challenge their own views.
When students learn to think critically at a tender age, they become more rational, and have different ways to attack one single problem.
3. Reasoning abilities
Once you attempt translating something you believe into a line of code, you realize what is and isn’t possible, as opposed to what you and probably many others initially believed.
When kids learn to code at an earlier age, their propensity to find a difference between these two increases, thus enhancing their reasoning skills.
4. They learn a universal language
Since we have computers in our cars, houses, workplaces and even carry them as cellphones in our pockets, learning how to speak to them would be like learning a universal language.
Therefore, regardless of what language your child learns, a simple HTML can speak to billions of webpages allover the world.
5. Boosts their creativity and imagination
When children learn to code, they start to imagine the many numerous things they can instruct the computer to do
Imagination might sound quite mundane in your view of the world, but you should remember that the airplane and the cellphone started as simple imaginations – and the people who imagined them were taken to seek psychological assistance.
Imagination sparks creativity, and that’s the unbreakable chain of invention.
6. Improved concentration
If you are familiar to coding, you know that it’s not something you do while you play a video game or have a conversation with your friend about a girl.
Coding requires a lot of unbroken concentration, or else the problem persists. Also, this is why we see so many computer geeks in movies, coding from basements or secret rooms.
If a child learns to focus and concentrate at a young age, what can really stand in the way of their academic progress?
7. Improves their self-esteem
Some kids score very low on self-esteem because at their young age, they aren’t aware of their worth, their capabilities and their weaknesses – and they probably listen to other people’s opinions of them.
However, self-esteem increases along with one’s ability to solve problems, and this is also true for children. The more they solve problems, the less they’re afraid of them.
8. Teaches collaboration and teamwork
Coding is not usually one set of tasks to be performed by just one person. Sometimes, they have to seek assistance from someone else in order to solve a persistent problem.
If students are able to collaborate and solve their problems, they learn to leverage other people’s help and their own skills in order to solve theirs and other people’s problems.
9. Professional future
When a child learns to code, they can become lots of things in the market out there, right from software engineer to web designer.
Well, it’s not guaranteed, and lots of factors like passion will determine how far your child will go with this, but it’s worth the try.
10. Portfolio
When children learn to code at a younger age, they get to do a wide range of projects and in turn, build a portfolio which is necessary in everyone’s professional career. Also, having a good portfolio secures a job better than a college degree.
Conclusion;
To paraphrase what Steve Jobs said, everyone has to learn to program computers because it will teach them how to think. It’s hard to take that statement out of context, but considering all the above points, a collection of all the above qualities is Steve’s definition of thinking.
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