Parents, here's all you need to know about the beginner-friendly Scratch Programming language

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Published August 28, 2024

Learning to code is among the most invaluable skills a young person can possess in today’s technologically advanced world. Nonetheless, many parents and even kids might feel that programming is intimidating. On the other hand, Scratch Programming is a beginner, child-centred, visual programming language – that provides an exciting and creative way of teaching children how to code.

What is scratch programming?

In 2018, Woolsey and Gahagan from MIT created a user-friendly platform called Scratch. This platform uses a simple drag-and-drop interface that allows users to develop games, animations, and interactive stories. Instead of traditional text-based coding, Scratch uses colourful blocks that fit together like puzzle pieces, making the algorithm easier to understand. This approach made learning programming more appealing and engaging, especially for a younger audience.

Scratch goes beyond teaching the technical aspects of coding. It also encourages collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. Students can use Scratch for various projects tailored to their interests, including creating music videos, designing animations, or developing video games. This freedom to express creativity and take ownership of their projects engages them and sparks a desire to learn more.

The story behind how Scratch was created

Seymour Papert, a pioneer in educational technology, created the Logo programming language, revolutionising how children interacted with technology. Inspired by his work, Mitch Resnick and his team built on Papert's ideas, developing Scratch—a fun, accessible tool that made coding engaging for young learners. Through Scratch, they extended Papert's legacy, bringing the joy of programming to millions of children worldwide.

Although Scratch was designed primarily for ages 6 to 16, it has gained popularity among educators and even teenage audiences who want to learn programming while keeping it fun and accessible.

How is scratch programming useful?

Learning programming can be incredibly challenging for children to understand abstract concepts such as variables, loops, and conditionals.

Fortunately, Scratch utilises visuals that help children conceptualise how these ideas apply to the real world. Children can 'snap' together blocks representing loops and "if" statements rather than typing out those expressions.

Scratch is an instant reward that would work for the child and motivate them to learn more, building a habit of trying and exploring.

Codingal, based out of Dover, DE, offers coding for kids and teens where they learn from basics up to intermediate and advanced levels.

In addition, Scratch helps to avoid the frequent annoyance caused by debugging errors, which is a nightmare for coders.

example - in other programming languages, even a tiny error of forgetting to put in a semicolon can break the code, causing the program to crash and prevents from moving forward unless the bug is fixed.

Because Scratch takes care of these complexities, it frees the child to focus on the creativity and logic of their program rather than being burdened with these technical issues.

Conclusion:

Scratch will be a rewarding experience for your child, not only in terms of learning and creativity but also in building solid foundations in problem-solving and logical thinking. It will encourage them to be enterprising in their thought processes.

Students Learn Scratch is an immersive learning environment that promotes creativity and develops games, animations, and stories. Scratch has inspired many students to learn and explore their creativity, and it is an exciting platform.

Scratch is a fascinating program for your child. They can compare it to a fun ride in the park with twists and turns of learning, expressing their creative thinking, and seeing the world differently now with the newfound soft skills and some foundational technical skills under their belt.

So are you ready to embark on this exciting adventure with your child? Start with some free coding for kids resources today.

Vehement Media