Many parents know that computer science education is important and that job opportunities in the CS field are growing. However, for those parents who are not the most tech savvy or haven’t been exposed to a CS education themselves, supporting their child can be overwhelming and intimidating.
Good news! According to Madhu Govind and Marina Umaschi Bers, in order to foster this type of learning, parents don’t need to be coding experts, they just need to be willing to learn with their children. You can read the article they wrote here. They state,
“Research shows that parent engagement in extracurricular activities can, in turn, promote children’s engagement. We also know from existing family literacy research that shared reading interventions and home reading programs can enhance children’s linguistic and cognitive development. What if the same principle is applied to coding? In many ways, coding is now considered akin to language and as a playful and powerful way for children to think, communicate and express creative ideas.”
There are lots of free resources out there for kids and parents. So, to go a head and get started, check out, Scratch, Code.org, and Swift Playgrounds, just to name a few.
