Is computer code the new ABC? The program designed for children BEFORE they can read

A computer coding tutorial program for eight to 13-year-olds was released five years ago – but now the team behind it is working on a version for three to eight-year-olds.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers - working under the umbrella of the Lifelong Kindergarten group - released Scratch in 2007. This taught youngsters how to assemble games and animations using simple colour-coded blocks of instructions.

Now they plan on releasing Scratch Jr this summer – but some of these toddlers won’t even be able to read and it’s opened up a debate on whether it’s too much too soon.

He told KQED: ‘What’s most important to me is that young children start to develop a relationship with the computer where they feel they’re in control.

‘We don’t want kids to see the computer as something where they just browse and click. We want them to see digital technologies as something they can use to express themselves.’

Resnick sees learning to program computers as important to children in the 21st century as writing was in the past, stressing that they must ‘be able to create with new technologies’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2107288/Scratch-Jr-The-program-designed-children-BEFORE-read.html#ixzz1nh1PntRV