When someone mentions the word ‘coding,’ most people immediately think of either World War II message-intercepting machines and their operators, or a heavily bespectacled younger gentleman typing endless streams of 0’s and 1’s into a computer with a black ‘n’ green screen.
Whatever the first thing that springs to your mind, one thing is sure- for the vast majority of people, coding appears to be on par with nuclear science, and only suited for knowledgeable people who got their knowledge and skills from God knows where! (Aliens possibly!)
In actuality, however, coding, while quite complicated at times, is a way of communicating with a machine- in many ways similar to a human writing script and virtually anyone can learn it.
It’s made up of a finite set of rules and commands, and once you master them all, you can control a machine in any way you want!
Now, in the brave new world we live in, coding has become a new form of literacy, and the way the technology is progressing, understanding how machines work and how to ‘communicate’ with them is going to be the new norm in future education!
As intimidating as it sounds at first, coding can be taught at an early age, so by signing up your child for a summer course or a school with a curriculum that includes coding can be a great way to set it up for future education!
In this article, we’ll discuss why learning coding at a young age can benefit your child.
Alright, here’s the deal!
So, what is Coding in the first place?
Responsible for bringing machines, websites, and applications to life, coding represents the act of issuing commands written in a programming language to achieve a specific result.
Most everything you’ve seen on your desktop screen, a laptop or on an iPhone has been programmed by writing code sheets. In fact, you can read this very article thanks to a coded platform which enables a written document to be displayed as a cohesive stream of letters, punctuation signs, and numbers!
For example, the capital letter ‘Q’ is represented as ’81’ in HTML ASCII code!
Why Should Kids Learn How to Code?
- Coding develops problem-solving skills – Writing code into a platform to make something ‘come to life’ is a fairly high-precision craft. Through trial and error, a child will learn how to make something work and then even fix it if it fails along the way!
- It makes them gritty – Dealing with a task that can go wrong if you type in a dot or a comma in the wrong spot makes for a pretty challenging experience at times. By learning how to identify and fix their own mistakes, kids develop grit, and that’s always a valuable life skill, no matter what their future profession will be!
- Gives them better job opportunities in the future – For all intents and purposes, programming (and with it inevitably coding) is becoming increasingly popular and will be even more so in the future!
Bottom line, learning how to code doesn’t happen overnight. So, considering that the future has plenty of programming and technology for our children and us, having them to get acquainted with this subject matter while they’re still young. It is possibly the best way to give them an upper hand in education and finding a well-paying job!