Of robots and binary trees: Kids in Singapore start young at coding

Five years ago, they would be mostly students from primary and secondary schools, thanks largely to the Code for Fun enrichment programme offered by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Education.

The interest has since filtered down to pre-schools, with coding being part of their curriculum or an enrichment option at some school chains, such as EtonHouse, E-Bridge, Carpe Diem and Kinderland.

For pre-school kids, the focus of such coding classes is on teaching them to think logically and solve problems systematically. It is not about writing code for computers, says Professor Looi Chee Kit from the National Institute of Education's Learning Sciences and Assessment Academic Group.

And no, the kids do not need to be able to read and write properly. They learn through play-based approaches to program a robot to navigate a maze or move around objects.

Advocates say the little ones can pick up new skills and knowledge quickly simply because they are young and curious.

"Pre-schoolers are amazingly fast learners, which makes it a perfect time to introduce basic coding concepts," says Mr Aditya Batura, co-founder and chief executive officer of Codomo. His education technology company has run training programmes in coding for teachers and students from pres-schools including PCF Sparkletots, Chiltern House and Columbia Preschool. It also designs learning products such as Potato Pirates, a card game to develop kids' computation thinking .

"I started coding only in university when I was around 21, which is why I'm an advocate for introducing it at an early age, because I wish I had experienced that," says Mr Batura.

It is not just software engineers who need knowledge in computing language, which he describes as the English of the 21st century.

"Even if your child is going down a career path which is completely unrelated to coding, it's not a skill that is going to waste because it teaches us creativity, problem solving, persistence, among others. These can be easily transferred into any occupation in the future," says Mr Batura, who is also a Singapore University of Technology and Design Academy Adjunct Fellow.

Just like any language, the best age to develop digital literacy is when the brain is developing.

Dr Elaine Kim, co-founder and chief executive officer of Trehaus pre-school, says that up to age six, children's brains are like sponges taking in everything around them.

"They're joining dots and processing information in a way that they won't be able to do when they're older. That initial curiosity, creativity and passion for learning, very sadly, often get chipped away," says Dr Kim, who is also a medical doctor and has three sons aged four to nine.

"I would never be as adept at coding as my eldest son, who picked it up almost like a native language," she adds. Her son Kyan Kim, nine, was introduced to computational thinking when he was four years old and has shown an aptitude for it.

"He has built his own website and apps. But whenever I see him in action, I don't understand most of what he is doing. I have no idea what he's talking about," she says with a laugh.

Trehaus, which was set up in 2017, is one of the pioneers in introducing computational thinking to young children here.

Pre-school chain Star Learners Group recently introduced robotics and coding as an optional enrichment programme at seven of its 42 centres island-wide.

"We see benefits to this learning approach, such as honing our children's critical thinking as well as problem-solving skills. These are 21st century skills which we also impart and place emphasis on, through our literature-based curriculum," says cluster principal, Ms Koh Hui Siu.

But don't kids pick up these skills from activities other than coding ?

Mr Batura of Codomo agrees that playing with classic brain toys, such as shape-sorters, jigsaw puzzles and the game Mastermind, can help kids develop critical thinking skills.

"But there is only so much you can do with them, right? It's the same drill over and over again," he says. "Whereas if kids are playing with programmable toys and coding apps, they keep their attention for a much longer period of time. They can see instantly what is happening and even identify how well they are doing."

Prof Looi says coding classes may not be for all children. "Unless your child has a desire to learn, not all pre-schoolers need to learn coding in the stricter sense of learning a simple programming language on a computer," he says.

Young children can be exposed to some of the fundamental ideas in computer science with age-appropriate materials, just as in the case of other literacies like reading, writing, maths and science.

As they get older, those who continue to learn to code using a computer are encouraged to create a program that works and does something fun.

"It may be frustrating for children to learn how to express and get their instructions across. But, when they persist, they will see outcomes that can give satisfaction. They will learn resilience and experience success," Prof Looi adds.

Mum Yvonne Tan, 34, a consultant, will be enrolling her son Xandar, three, in the coding enrichment class offered at his childcare centre, Carpe Diem.

"I know that coding is now taught in primary schools. Having a headstart will help him build a better foundation and learn logical thinking," says Mrs Tan whose son also attends enrichment programmes in English reading and Chinese.

Joel Ang, five, started weekly classes at a private centre last December. His dad Vincent Ang, 46, an engineer, says it is too soon to tell the benefits of learning coding.

"He likes the course because it's just playtime for him," he says. "I do hope that the thinking skills from coding will help him in maths in future."

How pre-schoolers learn coding

Unlike primary and secondary school children who learn coding on smart tablets and computers, pre-school kids are introduced to the concepts on limited screen time. This is in accordance to the World Health Organisation's recommendation that children from age one to five should spend no more than one hour on digital devices daily.

Computer Science Unplugged is a movement gaining momentum globally as educators combat this issue of overexposure to screens, which is a major drawback of teaching coding to pre-school kids. It focuses on teaching computer science without a computer, says Mr Batura of Codomo.

At Trehaus pre-school, for example, The Straits Times observed three- and four-year-olds learning about directions - up, down, left, right - and navigating their way around a town using colourful activity sheets during a class.

Saturday Kids, a coding school and social enterprise set up in 2012, introduced classes for kids aged five to six in 2017.

During its Curious Creatures course, the children collaborate with one another to reimagine a classic children's story such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Programming concepts like sequencing are reinforced through hands-on, non-screen activities including games, storytelling and art.

They would then recreate the story with the instructors as an animation using ScratchJr, a programming language that is purely visual, says Ms Tan Yeehui, who is part of the marketing and special projects team.

4 key principles of computational thinking

These make up the fundamentals of coding, says Mr Aditya Batura of Codomo.

1. Abstraction: Adapting a solution to another scenario by focusing on the key concepts and ignoring irrelevant information.

2. Decomposition: Breaking down a problem into smaller bite-sized ones to be tackled one at a time.

3. Algorithmic thinking: Designing a repeatable, step-by-step solution to solve a problem which can be applied in many different scenarios.

4. Pattern recognition: Noticing similarities or repeating steps or repeating information.