Five reasons why programming is important for young ages

What do you think is the proper age for kids to start programming? What if I say that kids can start coding from five or even four years old? Sounds intriguing?! 

But firstly let's see what programming itself is. “Programming is the process of creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to perform a task”. For the process of communication with a computer, there are a variety of programming languages to implement algorithms so the computer can give us solutions as an output, which may be a computer software, a mobile application or even a video game.

When teaching programming to a 5 year old, the focus is not on waiting for them to create complicated software, but on starting a coding journey from basic concepts such as sequencing, algorithms, decomposition, etc. According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and his cognitive-development theory, children at the age of five are in the preoperational stage, when they begin to understand the world through the use of mental representations via words and images. Based on this even if kids can not read or write well they may start from unplugged coding activities and then go over to visual programming languages where the code is built from blocks.

Below there are 5 the most important reasons why programming is important to learn for kids from the early age:

The first thing that comes to mind about programming is writing lines of code, but it is not just about it. It is about giving a big opportunity to demonstrate to children how they can think differently. Coding effectively requires the use of logical thinking and the ability to detect and see large problems and break them down into smaller pieces to solve them one by one. The process of dividing a bigger problem into simple steps is called decomposition, which enables computational thinking.

Programming gives the ability to learn from failure, to realize that failure is not a bad thing and can bring positive outcomes as well. It serves as a good opportunity for learning. Children will learn that the process of detecting and removing errors or "debugging " code is even fun. While they fail and try again, they can learn from their mistakes till they succeed at the result they are looking for. In this way, seeing progress strengthens self-confidence and develops motivation.

Programming is fundamentally a very creative process, when kids start from nothing and finish with a result; like cooking or painting, programming encourages them to enjoy the process. The virtual world offers infinite possibilities for creating anything the child wishes, the only one limitation is imagination that is continuously developed by connecting existing ideas with new solutions and concepts. In this way, they become creative thinkers and more curious about discovering what next they can do, apply and experiment.

Creating algorithms and writing codes can be quite challenging. Exactly these challenging situations as fixing errors and attempts to make programs work out give perspectives to develop problem-solving skills and computational thinking. Problem-solving techniques are transferable to a wide range of other fields. For example, by forming hypotheses a scientist can solve problems as well and then test these hypotheses one by one to prove them. The same happens in coding when a developer is testing one component at the time to see which one will solve the problem.

Active learning methods allow children to gain knowledge and experience through exploring. These methods involve active engagement, focusing the educational process on the student, not just a passive practice. In some visual programming languages, for example, making characters move or jump is needed to build a program from arrows. For these kinds of tasks kids do not need a long explanation before, children just sit and start doing the program intuitively. 

Programming is the language of the future and children will learn and develop a wide range of skills that will bring them success, even if they do not choose the IT path.

Today I introduced the most important reasons why programming should be introduced from an early age and what are the benefits from it. In the next article I will expand upon a topic of which methods and tools we can use in the teaching process of programming.

Piaget, J. The Psychology Of The Child 

Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. (M. Cook, Trans.). W W Norton & Co. 

Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Future of the Classroom https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/latest-news/future-of-the-classroom/