Teaching your children to enjoy and interact with computers from an early age can have all sorts of benefits. Sandra Rudd, a nursery nurse, carried out research on how children use computers in the nursery to find out how the children use computers and monitored the results.
Her findings showed that the computers formed part of social activity and that they helped to promote creativity, develop problem solving skills and allowed children to be innovative and make connections. She also found that children with more advanced IT skills were more likely to enjoy the computer, play games on it, invent their own rules, and teach other kids.
There are some simple ways you can encourage your own preschoolers to pick up the mouse and keyboard and spend some time figuring out the PC, ways which will make computing fun and help their development at the same time.
To start with it is important that, with younger kids, parents spend all the computer time with them. Sit beside them and talk to them about what they are doing and help them when they get stuck. You can praise them when they figure out something new, ask questions about what they are doing and keep them actively involved.
Mouse skills are probably the first thing that little ones need to learn and can be a little tough for small hands. There are specialised mouse designs specifically for children available if you fancy spending money, otherwise your bog standard mouse (and a dollop or two of patience) will do. Try using programmes that let them draw and colour – the movement of the mouse and association with the actions on screen will train them to use the mouse effectively. Check out our websites for kids for great places to visit.
One of the best activities we found for teaching our kids about mouse control was to put our fingers on the screen and have her “catch” them with the mouse cursor. Endless giggles plus improved control.
Another activity that helps children to get used to the mouse and the computer is gaming. Not the hardcore F.E.A.R style gaming of course, but rather quirky games that will help children to grasp the finer points of cause and effect with the mouse and keyboard while having fun. Take a look at our list of suggested games here.
If you have a mix of age groups, encourage the older children to show the little ones their control of the mouse and keyboard and the computer. Let siblings teach and entertain each other and the younger ones will learn by watching and copying.
Teaching a child to get to grips with the keyboard, especially when they can’t read, is a slow process. However, there is no time like the present to get them used to it and what it can do. Take an old keyboard that isn’t attached to any computer and let them smash away at it to get used to it. Then let them use a “live” keyboard with a word processing application to see how the different keys work and make marks on the screen.
Introduce these elements and activities slowly and allow your children to explore at their own pace. With encouragement and praise they will soon be experts at using your PC.