5 Ways Coding Helps Kids Develop Their Skills

Every child needs to be a part of extracurricular activities that help them disengage from the workload in school. Most parents prefer enrolling their children in dance, sports or music classes. Apart from that, there is always that one course aimed to develop their intellectual abilities and overall skills, like abacus learning. That said, coding doesn't often make it to the top-ten list of extracurricular activities for children. Why should kids learn to code? While the skill is greatly valued by organisations, it is also a great way to enhance your child's analytical and creative abilities. Even if you do not look at it as a direction for your child's professional growth, here are 5 ways coding helps kids develop their skills.

Hones their creativity
Coding is entirely based on problem-solving. This is one of the main reasons why coding is important for kids. Most courses start with simple solutions and then increase the difficulty level over time. Often, each problem can have more than one solution which usually varies depending on the programmer's knowledge. When a child is pushed to find the best possible way to build a code, it can dramatically enhance their creativity. Coders are no different from creators, usually building efficient and aesthetic solutions to most software problems. Modern-day education tends to sideline creativity and investing in courses that sharpen this aspect can greatly affect your child's future.

Efficient Problem-Solving
Trailing further with the previous point, one of the many benefits of coding for students is that it boosts an individual's problem-solving skills. Problem-solving does not necessarily mean tackling complicated or negative situations. It can revolve around novel situations in an individual's everyday life as well - something that they have never experienced before. When your child learns to code, every new obstacle they encounter and every solution they discover only improves their perception of the challenges around them. This way, every time they come across a hurdle, they will always look for potential ways to solve it. For instance, if they leave to study away from home, they won’t let the novelty push them down but rather encourage themselves to focus on the good parts.

Raising Persistent Adult
Persistency is a rare and underrated personality trait. According to this article, it can help you stay focused on your goals and achieve them through discipline. Coding is a challenging skill that takes months to master, if not years. To know the fundamentals of any software language, your child needs to be persistent and relentlessly pursue information without giving up. Persistency is one of the key benefits of learning to code. While it's completely okay if the subject does not motivate them enough to pursue it, for those whom it interests, the skill can build resilience. There's always that one tiny syntax error that can fix the entire code. So why give up, right?

Staying on Top of Technology Trends
Many experts continue to believe that coding is almost an essential life skill. This may hold true given the kind of personality traits it can develop in young children. Apart from that, it also encourages digital literacy in a world that is majorly dependent on gadgets and the internet. This builds digital autonomy in them at a young age so they are ready to tackle any problems that come their way. Teach your kids to code so they know how to stay safe from hackers, how to efficiently protect their data and manage their presence on the internet. Raising children to be digitally literate is extremely important in today's world and coding can help you do that.

Great for the Resume
As opposed to traditional career choices, modern-day professions offer a much wider range and scope. While your child needs to be given the freedom to choose their path, teaching coding to kids adds a great skill to their resume. Think of it as knowing an additional language or sport - organisations always give preference to more competent individuals. Moreover, if your child does decide to pursue coding full-time, the years spent honing their skills will help them excel in their path. A well-laid foundation can never go wrong, can it?

The importance of coding in a kid's education is obvious. If you are sceptical about overwhelming your child with too many extracurricular activities, prioritise this for the many ways in which it hones their personality. Not only does it help them professionally, but it also creates more persistent, creative and digitally literate adults. However, it is important to be patient with your little ones and look out for signs of stress, if any. If they don't seem to take a liking to the skill in a couple of months, it might not be their forte.