Now, we won’t say there’s any ‘right time’ to start coding. You might start when you’re 6 or you might start when you’re 26… the benefits are there for you to reap at any stage of life. However, highlighting examples of some brilliant young minds who started coding young will surely convince you of the social, cognitive and creative advantages learning coding early can offer your kids!
- The time to learn coding is now
- Bill Gate’s created his first game using coding at the age of 13!
Facebook CEO Zuckerburg learnt BASIC in middle school!
Learning coding early on sure helped these people, and it can help your child too!
Wait… what did Brittany Wenger do at just 19?
It’s literally hard to believe that in 2014, American Brittany Wenger, at the age of 19 made an ‘artificial brain’ using coding that assesses tissue samples for breast cancer. Her invention uses a complex computer program called ‘neural networks’ to make breast cancer detection calls with a whooping 99% accuracy!
source: https://gosciencegirls.com/brittany-wenger-young-scientist-working-to-cure-cancer/
Where did her journey begin? With coding at the young age of 12. She taught herself how to code using a textbook and is now unstoppable!
Ever heard of a little app called ‘Twitter?’
https://fortune.com/2015/10/22/dorsey-twitter-stock
X, formerly known as Twitter is the brainchild of Jack Dorsey, another example of a coder who started young. As a kid, he was always intrigued by transport and as a teenager, wrote dispatch software for taxicabs! Many taxicab companies still use his software to manage dispatching logistics, and Dorsey himself used this software as the very building block for X!
If it hadn’t been for his early coding journey, we may not even know what Twitter is!
Meet Kautilya Katariya, Guinness World Record Holder for being the youngest AI programmer
This curious kid in the UK made the best of the COVID-19 lockdowns by taking up computer programming and learning AI when he was just six! Katariya converted his childlike fascination of computers into a meaningful quest to understand these devices that he said seem to be the way to create anything cool.
He learnt Scratch, Python and took several IBM courses..
Some words of wisdom from this young boy that really get to the heart of a lot of skepticism surrounding coding are ‘programming is really fun and it’s similar to solving puzzles. If we think of it like that, coding won’t feel difficult and you will enjoy it.’ Excellent advice indeed!
Samaira Mehta, a child with a mission to make coding FUN
When Samaira Mehta’s dad started teaching her coding at the age of 6, she was shocked that other kids didn’t find it as fun as she did! Her bright mind immediately observed that coding is the future and to make it more enjoyable and get her friends involved, she put coding into a board game and voila- CoderBunnyz was born!
Through 13 levels of gameplay, users learn around 15 concepts in computer programming. Her coding ventures have taken her to big companies like Facebook and Google and she regularly holds workshops inspiring young kids to learn coding.
The CEO of Facebook started coding in the 6th grade!
Are we beginning to see a pattern here?!
Mark Zuckerburg, literally a household name, developed a software program to establish communication between his home and his dad’s office at just 11! Seems like he had always been on a mission to connect people.
If you’ve seen ‘The Social Network’, you’d know all about how Zuckerburg started Facebook from his college dorm room. He thinks coding is a tool that gives you freedom and creative control, contrary to the stereotypical image of a dull, boring life coders have!
Bill Gates learned how to code as a kid
We seem to be so distracted by his extreme wealth, his blinding success, his amazing philanthropy that sometimes we lose the plot of who he really is! Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft is at the heart of it, a fantastic programmer who learnt coding at 13.
He, like most of the coders we’ve mentioned so far, is able to appreciate the unique capabilities of code. He marvels at how coding helps you solve problems, identify patterns and look for relevant information. Don’t these sound like skills all kids could benefit from?
We sure think so.
Daniella Feinberg- The woman who brings imaginations to life on the big screen
Beginning her career at Pixar Animation Studios in 1997, this cinematographer and director of photography for lighting on some of your kids favorite movies like WALL-E and Brave started coding as a young girl. Going to summer coding camps and diving into the world of computer animation during her time in Harvard, Feinberg’s work shows how coding can allow some of the most creative sides of our imagination to come to life beautifully. She says code makes her life easier, and the way things come to life through code is for her, the ‘definition of magic.’
She now also actively works to encourage girls to learn how to code and pursue careers in STEM!
Basil Okpara Jr., gaming extrodinaire
This Nigerian teen created more than 30 mobile games using Scratch at just the age of nine!
Joining a coding bootcamp was a game changer for him, allowing him to convert his love for playing games such as Candy Crush and Temple Run into a meaningful effort to make games of his own. His most popular game is called ‘mosquito mash’ and it’s available on the PlayStore!
Basil’s father enrolled him in a coding bootcamp in attempts to channel his obsession with mobile games into something productive. And those five days at the bootcamp were truly transformative, allowing Basil to unlock a store of hidden potential and talent and creating in him a strong commitment to become a scientist! We can only imagine all the great things Okpara has in store for the future.
- Learning coding at an early age provides a creative outlet and unlocks potential
- Learning how to code in childhood gives your child a valuable 21st century skill
- Young coders are the problem solvers, the creators, the innovators of tomorrow