In our 21st century, we recognise that our children need to start developing an idea of what is programming language to help them be prepared to succeed in a technology-filled world.
How about instead of being only passive technology users, they can become active inventors and innovators?
First we must acknowledge that younger children around 4-6 years of age, irrespective of gender, exhibit equal aptitude in learning computational and problem-solving skills. These children are natural systems thinkers who can break problems into smaller parts in order to solve them but what more with greater nurturing.
Children, younger or older, should learn teamwork and communication skills as soon, in order to gain confidence in presenting their ideas and with experimentation, prototyping and handling failure. Here are some tips parents can nurture their children along this line:
1. Ensure different types of play: design, make, and build with tangible objects such as building blocks, LEGO, and Do-It-Yourself and Robotics Kits.
2. Provide lots of practice in assembling things, reflecting and following written instructions (like listing what to prioritise for the day or what they have learnt at the end of each day), replacing conventional technology, and configuring new devices. The objective is to help them become more comfortable with decision-making, trial and error, troubleshooting, handling failure and persevering.
3. Encourage children to deconstruct things, especially old electronic devices like old phones, cameras or toasters. There’s nothing like discovering what’s underneath the electronics and technology we use in everyday life and that devices are systems with parts which work together to perform specific tasks. This will help make them see technology in a less intimidating and more accessible form.
4. Register them in courses like Coding, Robotics and/or 3D Design to offer exposure and experience which will result in children with greater resilience, grit and motivation to create and innovate in today’s world of technology
Such will prepare them to navigate in a world of rapid technological development and be conscious consumers of technology. To help your child learn more of, go to this page.