Children and Programming

A challenging task is to understand the relationship between children and programming. The prime reason in teaching children how to program is not memorizing syntax rules of programming languages but to let the user acquire logical thinking and algorithmic problem solving. It is argued that the skills gained in programming activity have a strong relation to the mathematical concept. Early research indicates the expression of mathematical concept in the form of computer programs that suggested line enquiry (Logo and BASIC are the most obvious examples).

Nowadays, the notion of programming has fundamentally shifted to include visual aspects and manipulations by point-and-click. The shift aims at providing children with an environment tolerant towards syntax errors and an intuitive usability. Recently, a great interest in tools that use graphics to support the programming activity emerged. Visual programming, programming by example and programming by demonstration are the example of exciting areas in programming research for children and promise to improve the user interface to programming environments.

However, some people believe that these tools do not only enable the children to use it, but also prevent them to think for themselves. Most of the children are bothered to memorize the programming syntax and depend on a teacher to construct a program with their own ideas. But, recent research on children as programmers, found out that language constructs do not pose major stumbling blocks for novices learning to program. Furthermore, the important aspects of programming activities have become a medium for creative expression for children and offer a rich environment for them to become engaged and learn more aspects of programming.