Why Coding is Important for Kids: 7 Reasons All Parents Should Know

A few days back, my younger brother built an app that automated our water heater. Previously, we had to go outside to turn it on, but with this app, all family members can turn it on from anywhere in the house.

This wouldn’t be so impressive if my brother weren’t only 10 year old!  In the past few years, the trend to learn coding has become extremely popular, especially among the younger generation. It is not surprising, considering the wide implication of software and web development in our everyday lives. Not only is it a lucrative career option, but it also helps kids learn a life skill that helps them develop life solutions.

Kids are amazing learners, and studying coding alongside more established subjects like science, English, and math can encourage them to learn in new and surprising ways. So you don’t have to worry if your child is too young for coding. Learning how to write lines of code can be just as educational as crafting a cultural identity essay.

With the trend quickly gaining popularity, a lot of schools have added coding languages to their curriculums. Our article today sheds light on 7 reasons why coding is important for kids. Before you allow your kids to learn this language does give our article a read!

1.    Coding Helps Kids Develop Analytical Skills

Coding is a set of instructions that we give the computer to perform certain actions. To form the instructions, coders usually break down bigger problems into smaller parts. This helps to develop their analytical skills, and kids can apply the same principles when solving problems in other fields.

Introducing this language to your kid at an early age can help polish their analytical capabilities, and they will solve their problems with logic and reasoning. These abilities are useful when it comes to other subjects as well, such as mathematics, spellings, and problem-solving. Moreover, upon reaching middle school, they can exercise these abilities on more subjects such as physics, data analysis, geometry, stats, etc.

2.   Coding Fosters Creative Thinking

There is no one right way to code; you can implement your algorithm and get the task done. This concept helps kids unleash their creativity, and they are willing to experiment because they know that there is no one right solution. Therefore, they are encouraged to think outside the box and come up with solutions on their own. This kind of encouragement is especially important for kids as their minds are full of creative ideas and thoughts.

Unfortunately, the structure of our education system does not let these ideas mature, and by the time the kids reach middle school, their career path is set by societal and cultural trends instead of their aspirations. If your kid at an early age learns how to think outside the box, they can gain the confidence to make better career decisions later in life and choose a path which they enjoy.

3.   Coding Helps Instill Life Skills

In the day and age we live in today, we simply cannot deny the importance of computational skills technological knowledge. Learning the coding language allows your children to become familiar with computer-related programs, which is extremely important in the digitalized world we live in today.

Therefore, if you want to give your kid a kick-start in learning about various computational operations, then coding is an excellent way to begin! There are several mobile app development services that are working on mobile apps to help kids learn how to code. If you don’t want to enroll them in a full fledge course, then you can make them learn through these applications or online resources.

why coding is important for kids 7 reasons all parents should know

4.   Opens Career Opportunities

Coding is a great skill that opens doors to several career opportunities. If your kid is good at it, then he has already paved the path for his future career and a well-established one too. Coding is a must-have skill and is becoming more and more important with time. In a few years, not learning how to code will be equivalent to not knowing how to read.

Especially with the world moving towards digitalization, even the smallest businesses require employees with sound computational knowledge to manage their online platforms. Hence, in the future and even today, people who know how to code or have a fair amount of computational knowledge have the edge over those who don’t. 

5.   Coding Helps Kids Learn Perseverance

Coding can be fun once you get the hang of it, but it not easy, especially for kids who are still struggling with basic mathematical concepts. With a subject like coding, kids learn how to take care of their problems and come to terms with the fact that it is okay to make mistakes. They also learn that they can rectify their mistakes and prevent their programs from crashing.

Moreover, they learn the value of hard work and patience as it ultimately leads to their program functioning smoothly. This is something that kids usually don’t learn with other subjects. Although this isn’t entirely true as they do get marks based on their performance, having a code run smoothly is a different kind of reward.

6.   Boosts Confidence

If you have ever coded yourself, you must be aware of the adrenaline rush when your code runs successfully. Well, this is exactly the kind of boost your kid will enjoy if their code is functional. Being able to experiment with different functions and developing your product can be a big confidence boost for a person of any age.

When a kid learns how to code, they will feel more confident in their abilities and more willing to experiment. Moreover, kids also learn the important lesson of accepting failure and learning from it instead of feeling dejected as codes barely works 100% the first time. It always requires a few minor tweaks, if not major, before it can be fully functional.

The Future is Coding

It is fair to assume that the future will be technologically more advanced, and many aspects of our lives will be digitalized. Even the toys our kids are using have sensors, microchips, and other tech elements. It is becoming increasingly important for us to become familiar with the new gadgets and it will be even more important for the next generation. Teaching your child this language at an early age will help them pick concepts in a better way as they grow up.

Key Takeaways

The point of teaching coding to children is not just so kids may pursue a career in the field. A lot of kids might not even enjoy it and treat it like another boring subject which is part of their curriculum; even then, there are plenty of benefits of the coding language that may not be obvious right now, but they will reflect on later in life. 

We hope our article will help you make your decision on whether to let your child learn coding at an early age or not.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Myrah Abrar is a computer science graduate with a passion for web development and digital marketing. She writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions, Mobile App Development.

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