How to Introduce Your Child to Coding: A Parent’s Guide

It used to be that coding is something people started doing in college. Then, kids started doing it in high school. Today, we know that not only can coding be started much earlier than that, but that it’s one of the best things you can do for your child as a parent, regardless of whether you (or your child) don’t care about coding as a professional vocation.

Just like reading, constructor toys, drawing, and other such activities, coding is a fantastic way to improve your kid’s learning capabilities, while also giving them an important life skill that is sure to come in use, even if not professionally. So, how should you go about it? Here is our quick step-by-step parent’s guide on how to introduce your child to coding.

1. Consider your kid’s age group

It’s never too early to start coding but it’s also never too late. People often think that before their kid is still in preschool age, there is no point in even considering coding or anything like it, but that’s not the case. Not only are kids as young as 4-6 years old well used to computers, phones, and tablets, but there are also special “coding toys” designed even for these ages.

Such toys aren’t merely just apps either, as there are countless different types of actual physical toys that can either be used separately or in conjunction with an app to help your child have fun, get interested in coding, and start to understand its basics.

On the other hand, if your child is beyond such an early age, there are various other apps and tools that are also both age-specific and skill level-specific. In either case, it’s crucial that you find the right tool that’s both at your child’s level and will be engaging enough for them.

2. Figure out what would appeal to your kid the most

The second step is to find the toy and/or app that is uniquely suited to your child’s interests. Coding in and of itself (the lines and walls of code on a blank screen) may not be interesting in and of themselves, but the projects, games, and toys your kid will be creating with their initial coding attempts can be drastically different. They can be creating a racing game, an animated story, a robot, or anything else.

The entire goal of this initial introductory phase to coding is not so much to get your kid to learn how to code, but to get them to enjoy learning how to code.

3. Pick the right tools for coding

Of course, quality always matters too. Once you know what kind of age-range and type/theme of app or toy you’re looking for, it’s important to also get something that will work as well as possible. There are thousands of different tools and courses on coding online, including many designed for kids specifically. Some are free, others have both free and paid versions, and some are paid-only but come with free trials.

While this isn’t something you necessarily want to overspend on initially (in case your kid vehemently refuses to get into it), it’s still good to look for the best kids educational programs rather than pick something that will guarantee failure on its own.

4. Don’t approach it as “teaching” but as “guiding”

Kids of any age, but especially younger ones, don’t really enjoy “learning” and they certainly don’t care about tests, achievements, and certificates. That is, unless they are fun to get. So, as you’re trying to introduce your child to coding, approach the whole process as a guiding rather than teaching. What matters at first isn’t how much your child learns but how much enjoyment they find in the process.

5. Take your kid’s feedback and preferences in mind

Every child is different, so we can’t just give you an 7-step plan that will work for every kid 100% of the time. Instead, a big part of the process will be to look at your child’s reactions and figure out what appeals to them. If they don’t seem interested in some aspect of the process, this doesn’t that you should keep hammering the same thing over and over until they “get it” but that it’s time to try a different angle of approach.

6. Ensure regular gratification

Kids (and most adults, really) aren’t really keen on “delayed gratification.” And, unfortunately, coding very much relies on delayed gratification. Very often a programmer has to work daily for weeks or months (or more) to see the results of their labor.

This obviously doesn’t work for kids. So, instead pick a project that will ensure a daily dose of gratification – something you and your child can complete (or achieve a significant milestone in) in a day or even just in an hour or so. This way, your kid will be able to see the fruits of their labor as quickly as possible, get the gratification they need, and be interested enough to try again tomorrow.

With that in mind, don’t get stuck on finishing everything you start. It’s much better to switch projects when things drag on or when your child starts losing interest.

7. Do the hard parts yourself

Another approach to get things done quickly while keeping your child engaged is to do some of the hard, monotonous, and boring parts when your child is not around. Not every part of coding is incredibly exciting, after all, but the goal here isn’t to teach your kid the boring parts or to get them used to the idea that coding is boring sometimes. Instead, the goal is to keep them engaged.

So, if you don’t feel like switching to a different project but you know there is a boring wall of code that needs to be written, you can just give your child a break, do the wall of code yourself, and start again with your kid when stuff gets interesting again.