Computational Thinking and Child Performance in a Preschool

Abstract

Computing has been viewed as a basic activity and should be studied starting in preschool. This work investigates (1) the ability of children attending preschool (3 to 6 years old) to compute with a ludic model of computation and (2) whether there is a correlation between the ability to compute and the performance of children in preschool. The ludic computing model, specially designed for children, is proposed and used in experiments with 41 children attending preschool. The results indicate that the ability to use the proposed model to compute varies with the age of the child and that there is a correlation between this ability and the school performance of the child.