We explore the reasons it’s important for your child to be learning to code

Childhood starts with crying.

Everything is unfamiliar at first, but it becomes more endearing with time: when they cry, you feel them; when they fall over, you help them up; when they reach for you with grabby hands, you cradle them in your arms.

Older now, and they’re saying their first words. They start to talk. Tell you what happened at school today. A little older, and it’s only arguments. You think you’re getting used to all the turbulence, but then the plane lands and it’s smooth sailing again. There are words again. They start coming to you for advice, and once again, you finally start to feel like you can help them become that person you realize they’re dying to be.

Older still. They’re on the stage now, honour roll student, wearing that graduation cap. In that moment, everything starts to make sense. Everything you ever did for them — and everything that they ever did for themselves — has let to this moment.

And suddenly they’re twenty-one. Now it’s resumes, resumes, resumes, the countless interviews, moving back into home with you. Reality starts to creep back in.

When you spend seventeen years building up that My Child Will Become Successful™ momentum, watching them reach a stumbling block can undoubtedly seem rather daunting. With today’s job marketing being more competitive than ever, more and more parents are striving to develop their child’s skillset from a younger age.

How do I get my child ahead of the curve?

How can I get them ahead of the crowd?

What opportunities can I give my child to ensure that they become a valuable member of society?

I’m not a parent — I concede. But when you’re working with children, it’s natural to pick up on a parent’s doubts and anxious thoughts. On more than one occasion, parents have voiced concerns over the value of what we do. I’ve heard them all:

  • “How can Coding Kids benefit my child?”
  • “What skills is my child learning?”
  • “How long until they’ll be able to learn to develop an app?”
  • “Why do they need to learn how to code?”

All of these thoughts are legitimate concerns. It’s not unsurprising for parents to know what value their children are getting out of our programs. So to all you parents who have ever wondered what job skills you kids may learn, or what job opportunities may come out of Coding Kids — this blog article is for you!

What skills does learning to code – and coding – teach?

Like any extracurricular activity, learning to code enables the development of a number of technical and transferable skills. The most obvious and tangible benefit of learning how to programming is, well, being able to write programs — being able to make games, apps, digital works of art, and numerous other creations — but there’s more to programming than that.

Here are some of the fundamental benefits of a child learning to code.

  • Problem solving: Coding – and learning to code – doesn’t simply involve problem solving: coding is problem solving. At every turn, you’ll come across a reason (or, in some cases, no reason) why your code doesn’t work, and the discipline encourages you to think of at least one way that you can overcome your setback.
  • Critical thinking: Knowing how to solve a problem through the use of coding requires critical thinking. What do I need to know in order to solve this problem? What tools do I need at my disposal? How can I create a solution that adequately can solve this problem?
  • Communication: Coding is not a solitary discipline. Even in the real world, there can often be more than one programmer working on a specific project. This collaborative environment means that in order to be able to effectively work together, communication is an essential tool.
  • Empathy: Coders do, of course, solve problems. But nine times out of ten, the problems that you solve are going to be for the benefit of someone else, not yourself. (Ahhh needs further elaboration)
  • Digital literacy: The world is turning more and more digital, and coding ensures that your child knows the ins and outs of digital technology and how it works.

Learning how to code is a great skill for your kids to have, not purely in the sense that it teaches them how to write programs, but for all the other great skills that it teaches, and all the great ways in which they can enrich their career, regardless of whether it’s in Science or Technology or not.

 

If you’re interested to find out more