How Coding Boosts The Brain
Coding is one of those skills that can have an impact on a lot of sectors in your child’s life. Although the benefits of coding for kids are widespread these days, we as parents might still think about how a process like coding which is taxing to learn even for us, can be a good idea for children to take up at such a young age. But in actuality, coding has come a long way; it has transcended itself from being a strenuous and monotonous process, with the development of technology and the accessibility and straightforwardness that came along with it.
The process of coding for kids has also been simplified and made entertaining. With the introduction of software like Scratch, the learning of programming for children has become much like building a Lego or making a Puzzle. They are able to learn about the fundamentals of coding through play. Childhood is the time of questioning; this is the period in which children start to wonder about the world and ask why something is the way that it is; this is the best period to introduce them to programming.
This can help them in the understanding of technology and how problems can be solved logically and using a technique of methodical thinking. This process can boost the performance of the brain which in turn can help in the growth of different hemispheres of the brain.
The benefits of giving children early exposure to coding and the faculties that they are bound to explore because of its range from cognitive, developmental to vocational provinces. This is one of the early proponents of the rise in demand over teaching coding for kids. Below, we’ll discuss some of the most important benefits of teaching children to code at a young age.
Coding Fosters Creativity
Programming essentially is an activity that revolves around constantly finding solutions to problems and practical ways to execute the same. Coding teaches children to think outside the box because each website that they work on, or each program that they built will be different. Different platforms require different solutions to different problems. Getting their hands on such a cognitively demanding task can greatly benefit them in developing and fostering their inborn creativity.
Developing STEM Skills In Children
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and it has quickly become a foundation of education as well as innovation that is present around the world. The knowledge that the children are exposed to as a result of STEM is the base on which the creation and execution of technology lie upon. The importance of STEM in boosting the functioning of the brain is widely addressed. Many working papers have shown that STEM-based learning can improve the cognitive function of children even from primary school.
This is why STEM is such a crucial element that can help excessively in ensuring the technological literacy of our children, which in turn can act as a catalyst for helping the young ones to be relevant in the future. Learning to code can help children to understand and make sense of abstract mathematical concepts, like calculus and algebra. The logic that you use in coding software can be transferred to mathematics in academics and in life.
Develops Critical Thinking
One of the essential qualities that a good programmer possesses is the ability to see ideas and execute them in a structured manner. This can range from the initial building and execution of a program to writing coherent lines of code for giving it life. This structured approach to concepts and overcoming the hurdles that come along the way as the program is being built can help in the development of critical thinking among children. When a program is built, the challenges that appear afterward can be through the bugs in the program or changes in the features. Working on a program after it is built is similar to playing a game of Jenga; there will be a lot of challenges and the only way to not fall is to face them patiently and methodically.
Improves Attention Span
How we build physical muscles is through repeatedly forcing out muscles in strain and continuing the process till the stress starts to act as a catalyst for growth. This is the same for our brain as well. Repeatedly giving challenges and problems to solve can only improve its functioning In the way that we desire. The reason why that coding especially helps in the refinement of attention span is that, in the process of coding, each line of code is to be written mindfully. When we take driving a car as an example, even though we pay attention to the road, most of the driving is done in an autopilot stage where we are mostly passive. This constant use of mindfulness in the activity that we can do can help in building focus and improving our attention span.
Improves Your Ability to Learn a New Language
As we know, coding is a language that we use to communicate with a computer, which means that even though it is not verbal; when we learn to code we are learning a new language. Studies have shown that people who understand multiple languages have a much easier time learning additional languages and excelling in the academic spectrum as well. This is because languages help each other to strengthen themselves and provide syntactic skills to help each other in the process.
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