How Coding Develops
In our ever-evolving world, it’s advantageous for kids to develop the necessary skills to thrive in technology. When kids learn to code, they gain important technical skills that can lead to a career or inform the path they take. That’s why coding isn’t just about earning potential and job security. It’s also about the crucial life skills kids develop as they learn to code!
Coding fosters important 21st century know-how for students, preparing them for whatever the future has in store. The best part? Learning to code can be easy – and fun! There are dozens of exciting coding solutions, from in-person instruction to online courses and apps.
Why is learning to code important?
Programming is the way of the future. It influences and innovates every aspect of our lives. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that kids become digitally literate and that they understand the devices they use on a daily basis. Learning to code is empowering. It gives kids the tools to bring their ideas to life, express themselves, and opens a world of options for their future.
Parents and educators agree that learning to code provides endless benefits to kids. In fact, the majority of states in America have adopted policies to make Computer Science a fundamental part of the school curriculum.
What skills does coding develop?
In the digital age, programming is a basic literacy. It’s a 21st century skill that’s imperative to almost every industry. But programming isn’t just about communicating with a computer – it’s also about learning how to think. Kids gain important academic and interpersonal skills as they learn to code, including math and writing, as well as creativity and confidence. Kids even build soft skills such as focus, resilience, and communication.
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What are 21st century skills?
21st century skills are crucial for children. These include problem-solving, digital literacy, collaboration, and more.
Creativity
Kids develop and exercise their creativity as they learn to code, while giving them the technical tools to see their ideas through to completion. This enables them to bring their creative ideas to life with their own unique projects!
Confidence
Learning to code is a great confidence builder for kids that combines technical knowledge with creativity. Both of these are excellent for developing confidence. Kids feel great when they are able to learn and grasp a coding concept, and even better when they bring that knowledge to life with a hefty dose of creativity!
Communication
When kids learn to communicate with a computer, they improve their communication skills with people. Communicating with computers requires logical, well-organized communication. Learning to think and communicate in this way can boost their interpersonal communication skills too!
Critical Thinking
Coding helps kids understand the cause and effect relationships used to make strategic decisions. When programming, kids must consider all the blocks or commands that can fit in the code. From there, kids must use critical thinking to decide what fits best!
Coding builds soft skills
Soft skills are characteristics that enable a person to interact well with others. They underlie every aspect of life, from work to play.
Empowerment
Kids are perceptive – they’re paying attention to the world around them. When they learn to code they give themselves platforms through which they are able to amplify their messages. For example, the Tynker team has seen hundreds of kids create projects that promote kindness.
Focus and Organization
When kids learn to code, they quickly discover what it means to be focused and organized, key skills to any endeavor. Whether they eventually decide to pursue coding as a career or not, these skills will take them far.
Resilience
It’s no secret that coding can be a frustrating task, so resilience is key. Between the planning, coding, and debugging, it can be hard to stay patient and motivated to finish a project. However, when learning to code is fun, it’s much easier to stay determined and develop resilience.
Coding builds academic skills
Academic skills are taught in school. For example, math and writing!
Math skills
Learning to code can make math more fun by helping kids visualize abstract concepts that can be otherwise hard to grasp. They’re also able to apply the computational thinking skills they learn through coding to their math problems, like logic and organization.
Writing skills
It may come as a surprise, but learning to code can help improve writing skills! When kids code, they learn to plan and be concise, especially when coding creative, story-based projects that encourage taking an idea through to completion.
With hundreds of solutions catering to every learning type and interest, there’s no reason to delay your kid’s education in coding. Our comprehensive resource guide has ideas on where to begin. Learn more about why kids should learn to code with these top 10 reasons!
Get started with a coding education today!