Are there any games, toys, books etc that you would recommend for introducing Babies and Toddlers to programming concepts and logical thinking?
How would you introduce concepts like:
- Sequential
- Object Orientated
- Functional
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I've taught programming with some success to kids as young as seven or so... but toddlers? I have a 2-year-old, and I think she's pretty darn smart. She can count up to the teens, she can recognize a lot of letters ("D is for daddy!") all kinds of stuff. But programming? I just can't see it. I would think it better to work on letters and numbers and such, which are prerequisites for programming or pretty much any academic pursuit. That said, I suppose I can think of a few ways to teach the very basic foundations of object oriented programming though. If you want your kid to be able to eventually understand that things have properties, talk to them about properties. "What color is the car? Is it big or small? What color is your teddy bear? Is he soft or hard?" If you want your kid to understand that things have methods, talk to them about methods. "What can you do? Can you crawl? Can you run? What does your toy truck do? Can it roll?" If you want your kid to understand inheritance, talk to them about "is a" relationships? "Are you a person? Is mommy a person? Is doggy a person? Is mommy a girl? What about daddy?" These are probably good concepts to be working on with your kid, regardless of whether they're ever going to be a programmer or not. |
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Maybe somthing build with Scratch but i really doubt that babies and toddlers already have the mental capacity. |
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Call me old fashioned, but I'd avoid giving your baby or toddler electronic toys. Maybe some stuff that makes music, but don't only give toys that require batteries. For learning programming or more general analytical skills, I'd give toddlers building blocks like indeed Lego (I think most if not all programmers use to play with Technic Lego or something similar in their youth). Toys with many shapes that can fit into each-other can be great for babies. Of course talking a lot to babies and toddlers (but not in 'baby-language') also helps to stimulate their intellect. Lost but not least, understanding programming concepts requires intelligence, and intelligence is for the most part genetic. So you can't influence that much. For older children, Scratch is great I know from experience. Or just Basic or a similar language, many people I know started programming Basic (some in C or Pascal) when their between 10-12 - even people who had parents who wanted them to be farmer or plumber. |
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When I was but a wee lad, I would watch my dad write programs on the Commodore 128, man that was great. I'd like my kids to see or at least understand what I'm doing all day, the way a farmer would - a familial bond that was destroyed by the industrial revolution, but made much worse by the internet revolution. |
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Obviously, this suggestion will be more than likely lost on a toddler, programmable toys are probably the best example to show a child if you're inclined to introduce them to programming at an early age. I've heard nothing but good things about Lego Mindstorms. You could always introduce it simply as a toy to play with, then show what you can do with it using your choice of language and then introduce some easy stuff to do. |
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http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/lightbot http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/lightbot_2 http://www.filetransit.com/screenshot.php?id=44795 The last 2 kicked my ass :) |
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