KinderLab Robotics poll finds that over half of adults are concerned about teaching kids to code
KinderLab Robotics, a creator of toys and educational tools that teach four to seven year-olds to program and understand logic, conducted an in-person survey of 198 parents, teachers and family members to gauge attitudes towards young children and coding.
The survey found that the majority of respondents (65%) considered it ‘incredibly important’ for young children to feel comfortable with logic and to start to learn programming.
Just under a third (31%) said that it was ‘important’ for children to learn logic and programming at a young age, while only 4% said that they didn’t think it was important for children to learn to code or to learn programming-based logic at a young age.
The KinderLab Robotics survey also found that the majority of respondents (54%) are concerned over their personal abilities to teach children to code. Of those that were not concerned about how to help educate children in technology and programming logic, 27% said that they worked in technology or programming.
Mitch Rosenberg, CEO of KinderLab Robotics said: “We know many parents and teachers are concerned about how they can help children grasp technology at a logic and programming level, so we designed KIBO for children and for adults. Young children control KIBO through the kit’s wooden blocks, which are designed for open-ended play. This way, children learn about technology as they play, create and tell stories. KIBO’s accessibility means that any non-technical adult can show children how to put together programs and to control KIBO without even having to read the instructions by simply picking up blocks and starting to put them together – creating a programming sequence.”
KIBO kits start at $380 and are available to order.
About KinderLab Robotics Inc.
KinderLab Robotics creates toys and educational tools that enable young children to learn critical technical, problem-solving, and cognitive skills in a developmentally appropriate and playful way. While STEM education products exist for middle- and high-school students, KinderLab uniquely fills a need for a critical population: children under the age of seven. KinderLab products are based on over 15 years of academic and field research into how young children learn foundational concepts in programming and engineering, by integrating them into a multidisciplinary curriculum that includes literacy, the expressive arts and cultural studies.
KinderLab Robotics is headquartered in Arlington, Massachusetts. It was founded by Marina Umaschi Bers and Mitch Rosenberg in May 2013. The first KIBO prototype, KIWI, was created in the DevTech labs of Tufts University in 2008.
