7 Incredible Benefits Of Teaching Children Coding

In our increasingly digital world, parents want their kids to become computer-literate — and why wouldn’t they? Learning to code doesn’t just set students up for career opportunities later on in life; it also provides a host of soft skills and benefits that we will cover in this post. But when should they start learning? I started learning how to write codes at the age of 14 when my late father enrolled me into a computer school with an NIIT-trained expert and that training completely elevated my cognitive and analytical faculties. 

As it turns out, most professional developers started learning their trade early in life. According to Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developers survey, over 54 percent of professional developers wrote their first line of code by the time they turned 16. While it might seem intuitive to schedule a child’s first coding lesson into their high school curriculum, kids can start coding at a much younger age, sometimes as early as four years old. Below are 7 research-backed benefits for why kids should learn to code. 

Coding Boosts Problem-Solving Skills

Someone with well-honed problem-solving skills weaves disparate skillsets such as creativity, emotional intelligence, research skills, collaboration, and decision-making into a cohesive and effective response. A 2014 research indicates that even if your child doesn’t want to go into coding as an adult, establishing a practice of coding early in life will nevertheless help them build highly-transferable cognitive skills. Is it any wonder why kids should code?

Coding Improves Computational Thinking

One 2014 study found that coding games may help boost middle schoolers’ grasp of computational learning. Never heard of computational thinking before? Simply defined, it is a branch of knowledge that involves expressing problems in a way that a computer would. Students who learn this model of thinking are encouraged to break down complex problems into smaller issues, thereby revealing underlying process patterns.

Coding Encourages Persistence

Computer science is one of the few professional disciplines where it’s entirely acceptable to be near-constantly failing. Not only is failure immediately recognizable — i.e., a program “breaks,” and doesn’t work as intended — but success literally cannot be achieved until all errors are handled. Even the most straightforward programs require a coder to understand a set of problems and solve them; otherwise, the code won’t run as intended. But all of this frustration and failure comes with a real, lifelong character benefit: persistence.

Grit, as defined by Angela Duckworth in her NYT-bestselling book, refers to the rare ability to persist past repeated failure. The most successful people in life are not those who shy away from failure, but rather those who view it as a helpful signal. When children begin programming, they come to learn that failure is transient, and doesn’t have to be frustrating or a progress-stopper. Even small successes can provide the encouragement kids need to push through issues in their programming. Over time, this perseverance can bolster a child’s grit — and serve as one of the most important indicators of their future educational and career success.

Coding Teaches Creativity

Creativity, creativity, creativity; it’s something every early educator and parent is wholly concerned with, and yet it’s not a quality prized by most working adults. “Creative people have rapid and effective responses that help them to achieve their life goals and allow them to enjoy the journey… [It] is both a skill set and a unique and individual personality structure that’s developed throughout childhood and fine-tuned in adolescence,”

Notre Dame researcher Doireann O’Connor once noted.

So, how do we preserve a child’s creative skills as they age?

Experts suggest that kids should learn to code. As a practice, coding positions developers as “creators” or “world-builders” within a programming environment that requires creative thinking and an experimental mindset. With programming, kids are constantly prompted to experiment. Once they understand basic functionalities, they can continually ask themselves, “What if I tried this? Would that work?”

Coding Helps Teach Digital Literacy

Technology surrounds us; it supports our work, facilitates communication, enables social connectivity, and upholds nearly every industry in the economy. In the modern world, being able to understand and engage with technology isn’t just good to have — it’s a necessity for navigating an increasingly digitized society. Children need to know technology; in other words, they need to be digitally literate. Digital literacy is a broad term. Generally speaking, it refers to a person’s ability to understand and engage with technology in a thoughtful, meaningful way.

Coding is a Career-Building Skill

The importance of programming cannot be understated in our economy, which is now overwhelmingly driven by technology. here’s why kids should code even if they aren’t interested in becoming full-time developers: they can still benefit

professionally from learning a coding language or two. Programming savvy is valuable, regardless of your child’s educational background or job interest. In some cases, it may even be the capability that ultimately boosts them above their job market competitors.

Coding Improves Confidence and Communication Skills

Coding doesn’t need to be a group endeavor, but it provides an excellent context for collaboration. Enrolling your child in a programming class could be a great way to develop their team-building and communication skills—and having well-tuned communication skills empowers children to navigate social environments, collaborate with others, perform well academically, and achieve their goals.

Most importantly, kids learn to develop confidence and a healthy self-image. A coding project teaches your child that any problem is solvable and that any obstacle can be overcome with repeated creative effort and teamwork. Could there be a better reason why kids should learn to code? Probably not. But it’s safe to say that coding is one of the most constructive hobbies for your child to adopt, especially since it can help them develop persistence, communication, creativity, and higher-order thinking.

Yes, learning to code also sets your child up for potentially lucrative career opportunities, but it offers children so much more than that. A modern parent just can’t go wrong by encouraging their child to program. 

That is why we at DABA Kids are organizing this incredibly affordable Bootcamp to introduce your child to developmentally appropriate programming, plus a financial literacy class that will teach them the basics and principles of money.

What are you waiting for? Feed your child with the knowledge and skills of the future that can position them for greatness, wealth, and influence. Sign up for your siblings, kids, and loved ones via this link: https://dabakids.com/september-bootcamp