Coding for Children: a Guide for Australian Parents in 2021

Written by Nick B. (CTO of Codekids Australia) and edited by Alex S. (CEO of Codekids Australia)

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Why should my child learn to code?

There are many different reasons that learning to code can be good for a child. The most obvious reason is that of
the ‘information economy’. As society and technology move forward, more and more jobs are requiring high-level
computer skills – including coding. In the past, coding was often required only for highly specialised jobs such as
app developers, but nowadays far more require them; even some trade jobs, such as machinists, need coding skills.
Learning to code from a young age can help prepare them for their place in the future economy.
On top of that, for many students coding can be a valuable synthesis of STEM and the arts. Many STEM-minded
students find that they can use programming to help express themselves artistically in ways that they wouldn’t
otherwise be interested. Plenty of children have little interest in art or music, but find themselves to use coding
to create interesting and expressive games and stories. On the other hand, many artistically-minded students find
that coding can allow them to make all sorts of interesting and creative projects, and in the process they naturally
improve a lot of STEM skills (particularly technology and maths) that they may find uninteresting or difficult in a
school setting.

What can children do after learning coding?

In the narrow sense, students can expect to be able to make all sorts of different computer programs if they learn to
code. Anything from games and animations, to robotics, to iPhone apps. At Codekids Perth, we particularly focus
on the kinds of projects that children find fun – like games – but all of the skills used in one of these cases can be
easily transferred to any other coding context.
In the broad sense, learning to code opens up many future study and work opportunities. More and more jobs
require coding skills nowadays – not just programmers, but also scientists, teachers, machinists, and countless more.
What does computer code look like?
Normally we think of coding as 1’s and 0’s scrolling across a dark screen like in ‘The Matrix’, but in reality coding is
much simpler and more colourful.
Here’s an example of a Python program to make a simple quiz game. It even colour-codes the different
coding keywords to help you remember them. This is typically how modern programming languages look.

Here’s an example of a Scratch program to make a game called ‘Fish Chomp’. Scratch was specifically
designed for kids and so is even more bright and colourful. On top of that it uses a whole bunch of differ-
ent eye-catching images that kids love, to help make the process of learning to code easier and more exciting.

What is Scratch?

Scratch is programming language developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was developed
specifically in order to help children learn basic programming skills. Because of its simple and colourful design,
even very young children can start making all sorts of different games and stories with very little experience. It’s
fully block-based, which means that instead of needing to remember and type out a whole bunch of keywords and
symbols, students can instead simply combine different blocks from a glossary – making it very easy compared to
other programming languages. While Scratch isn’t a professionally-used programming language for any job, it does
provide a fun way to learn program that can be accessible to children of all ages. Skills that students learn in Scratch
undoubtedly help these children develop effective programmatical thinking skills that can be transferred to any of
the more ‘grown-up’ programming languages.

What is Python?

Python is consistently rated as both one of the most popular and useful programming languages for getting a job,
and also one of the best programming languages for a first-timer to learn. It is taught at countless schools and
universities across the globe, and is used by even big-name tech companies such as Google. Unlike Scratch, python
is fully text based, which means that students need to type out all of their code with their keyboard, making sure to
remember all the different keywords and symbols they need to use. Because of this, Python is a bit more difficult to
learn than Scratch (generally recommended for children aged 10+, or those who are already confident in Scratch).
It’s extra complexity, however, allows it to do more things than Scratch can. And because Python is so similar
to other popular text-based languages like Javascript, or C++, it is almost trivial to learn any new programming
language after learning Python.

Why isn’t learning coding at primary and high school enough?

The first challenge that students face when learning coding just at school is that of teaching quality. While teachers
try their best, they simply can’t be experts at everything. Coding is a relatively new topic for most schools, and
so most teachers haven’t had the opportunity to fully learn it themselves – instead having to work purely from
textbooks and worksheets, without the ability to really push their students and help them grow. And coding, like
any technology, changes quickly. Even those teachers who are proficient at it often learned with by-now outdated
programming languages like BASIC, or PASCAL, and so don’t teach more modern concepts and skills.
On top of that, programming is very similar to learning a language or playing an instrument – while school can help,
it ultimately requires a lot of time, practice, and specific instruction. Piano teachers still exist even though schools
teach music, and the same is true for programming.

What age is appropriate to learn code?

Coding can be learned at almost any age. In fact, many people have reported that it is easier to learn coding as a
child or young teenager compared to an adult, because younger, more plastic brains are more able to adapt to the
kinds of thought-patterns that are required in coding. In this respect, it’s very similar to learning a second language.
Very young children, even before they learn to read, can get started learning basic concepts and thought patterns
using tools like ‘Scratch Junior’. Primary School-aged children can graduate to ‘Scratch’, which allows them
to start making games, animations and stories. When they are over 9 year old (Yr 4 or above), children can start learning more
professionally-oriented programming languages (like Python), and can continue working with these languages right
into tertiary study and the workforce.

What type of computer should I invest in for my child?

Strictly speaking, almost anything will do. Countless programmers and computer scientists will tell stories of learning
to code on outdated family computers from the 80s and 90s, and it certainly is possible to do that.
To get the best head-start however, a few things can help. * Laptops are good because students can take them
anywhere and bring their code with them to practice without being tied to a specific space in a specific house. * Try
to avoid tablets, like iPads, because most programming languages don’t run on them unless you use some special
tools (which are generally not accessible to the general public) * Look for an operating system Windows 10, or recent
versions of Mac OSX. Older operating systems sometimes have trouble running modern programming languages particularly Scratch. If your computer runs an older operating system, see if you can get a new version installed. Most technology stores can help with this.

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