10 Reasons Why Your Child Should Learn Coding Early

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10 Reasons Why Your Child Should Learn Coding Early

Coding is a pleasant, multi-disciplinary activity that actively stimulates the mind and shows numerous benefits for children. Did you know, for example, that programming improves creativity, logical thinking, and concentration? We have compiled a list of the top ten benefits of coding for youngsters.

Schools, educational organizations, governments, and extracurricular activity centers all across the world are implementing coding for kids into their curricula and activity programs. They are fully aware that coding has numerous advantages for children; it is the language of the future, the new lingua franca, and is a skill that will be invaluable in the future labor market. As technology becomes more integrated into our daily lives, so will our interactions with it – and so will the demand for tech-savvy professionals. 

But, when it comes to coding, perhaps the focus is too often on strategic goals (better jobs) and practicality. Here are our top ten reasons why coding is good for kids and what skills it develops:

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1

Logical reasoning

Logical reasoning is not a simple undertaking. Seeing and understanding the relationship between cause and effect, abstracting the various components, and assigning attributes to individual events is something we learn for years, and many adults struggle with it. The important component of logical thinking, on the other hand, is decomposition – breaking everything down into its smallest components, allowing us to grasp how they’re related on much simpler terms. Every coding job necessitates the division of a work into smaller chunks.

For example, what will a robot need to do if we want it to function as an alarm? What exactly do we need to program? It must create a noise and, ideally, flash some lights for a set amount of time and volume, among other requirements. So we need to program all of this in a logical sequence. As a result, youngsters gradually grasp that even simple actions and commands include several “clauses” and smaller processes that must be completed first. This applies not only to coding, but to every somewhat more complex endeavor in life.

2

Coding fosters creativity

Creativity can also be defined as the ability to devise novel solutions to unfamiliar problems. It’s a skill that can be honed by alternating between focused and diffuse modes. Coding is an excellent exercise for practicing this. Obtaining new project instructions necessitates a great deal of exploratory thinking, brainstorming, and conceiving . These are then rigorously evaluated in an effort to put concepts into code .

Coding also helps youngsters to pursue their own creative hobbies, such as design, visual art, sound art, music, and so on. Furthermore, the great sense of having made something wholly new and unique is something that quickly becomes addicting and persists long after the youngsters have completed their coding homework.

3

Pattern recognition and structural thinking

Structural thinking entails recognizing patterns in larger items based on the components they are made of, as well as the ability to create and construct something greater from smaller components. It’s a necessary talent in any creative or engineering career, and coding encourages it greatly. Modular modeling is frequently used in coding goods or activities, which involves using smaller physical elements, such as blocks, to form a larger object. Whether it is simply visual or text-based, coding is all about determining what part each component may play and what function it can do in the context of the larger picture.

4

The importance of perseverance and resilience in achieving success

Both ways of thinking may be taught through coding and are quite useful in later life. The first is perseverance, which is not quitting up at the first hint of failure. To some extent, coding necessitates and encourages failure as a necessary step toward eventually getting the code right. This could take minutes or it could take days. The trial-and-error approach prevents rapid defeat and instead motivates children to persevere and pursue a successful end.

Second, resilience (closely connected to persistence) necessitates continuing to hunt for a solution even when none appears to exist, even when nothing appears to be working and the code simply isn’t performing what it should! Or, to put it another way, troubleshooting the broken code or structure. Coding teaches children that there is always a solution; all they need is patience and time to find it. And it’s easy to see why any parent would want their children to learn these abilities as soon as possible!

5

Algorithmic reasoning

Another necessary component for coding. Algorithms are comparable to recipes in that they are easily replicable actions that are used to address and solve a specific problem. To think algorithmically, one must be able to visualize and explicitly articulate the various stages needed to perform a task. As previously said, this demands tenacity and resilience, as building a cognitive algorithm (while quick and automatic) is not straightforward at first.

Second, it necessitates the ability to sequence (think steps in their proper order), repetition (the algorithm must repeat itself), and conditional logic (if this, then that). All of these concepts are teachable through coding. 

6

Coding makes math skills more understandable.

Math, another benefit of coding for kids, is frequently a cause of nightmares for many youngsters. Too many of them also assume that if they are lousy at arithmetic, it is because they lack the necessary skill. This is unfortunate, because it is also possible that they were never fully taught the underlying logical ideas of math and its broader application in the real world. As a result, math appears excessively abstract, unrelated, and even dull at times.

While young coders do not need to be math wiz kids to begin coding, they will acquire the arithmetic principles as they go, or as they code. Coding allows children to perceive and interact with the abstract ideas that make up math (such as conditioning, sequencing, equations, and decomposition) rather than just seeing them on a piece of paper as these terrifying figures.

7

Writing abilities and storytelling: the unexpected benefits of coding

Yes, coding at a certain level necessitates the creation of code. But, have you ever pondered what code is? It’s a language, and what do you get when you put bits and pieces of language together logically and sequentially? A tale. Coding is simply the process of telling a story using real-world items and the technology that enables them. It must contain an introduction, a plot twist, and a finale.

Our lessons here at Tokyo Coding Club are sometimes structured in the form of stories. They contain experiences like a robot visiting Toy Town, saving a princess,meeting new pals, and many more. It not only makes teaching any lesson easier for youngsters because tales are what makes sense to them at that age, but it also improves their ability to construct and explore their own stories.

8

Practicing fundamental soft skills

Communication (discussing what one intends to do with either other kids, teacher, or parent; explaining a problem when it occurs, working at a common solution together, and presenting one’s creation once it’s done), focus (not letting go until a task is solved), and organization (determining what needs to be done and everything that is required for it, setting up the sequence, assigning roles, etc.).

It’s clear how important all of these talents are in everyday life and other fields. Furthermore, the simplest method to learn them is to not notice one is learning them at all. All they need is a wiser figure (like a parent a parent) to guide them through their first steps and provide criticism as needed.

9

Improving immersion through coding

Immersion into an activity occurs when whatever we’re doing is simply too excellent to pass up, whether it’s reading a great book, building a sandcastle, or participating in a discussion. Unfortunately, we are losing this talent as a result of technology, which is teaching us to be more easily distracted and to hop from one task to another (like when we are scrolling through our feed or switching between apps). When was the last time you were able to concentrate on one single task for hours without checking your phone or seeking for something else to do?

Coding (or, more accurately, working on a coding project) is an interactive activity that usually involves several aspects (writing code, building a physical object, moving between the two to see how it works, looking up new information to solve a problem) while still presenting us with a clear task to solve. In other words, it’s the ideal technique to reintroduce us to the style of thinking that makes time fly and our brains explode with new information. You may also attempt coding with your children to see for yourself!

10

Computational Thinking

Computational thinking, in short, entails the construction of functional solutions based on a decomposition process, as well as the identification of similarities and comparable patterns. It’s how computers solve problems, and it’s how we can solve them as well. Coding is all about it, but so is any other new endeavor in life.

The benefits of coding for kids are numerous, and as previously stated, these can also apply to you, the parents, when you guide your children through the world of code and programming. It would be a shame not to participate in the fun, creativity, and engagement! 

There is much to be said about the STEM-related abilities that youngsters who learn to code acquire along the process. But what about the soft skills and adaptability that students might gain from teachings that have nothing to do with technology? They’re just as important, and there are lots of them!

Coding and robotics are both interdisciplinary topics that would be impossible to separate. They complement each other not only with other scientific disciplines (math, science, engineering), but also with non-scientific soft skills that are not taught as separate subjects in school. Learning to code for children is thus more than just an investment in their future (potentially) STEM profession; it is also a well-rounded education that will prepare them to be a better, more confident, and persevering working partner who isn’t scared to share their views and think outside the box.

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Jin
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About TCC

Tokyo Coding Club

We believe in the idea of awesome technology education for your children’s future. Our mission is simple, to create mind-blowing tech experiences that inspire students to create the future. Whether it’s programming their own videogame, animating their own cartoon, or building a robot, our industry professionals can help make your child’s technical and artistic dreams a reality.

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