Coding and childhood between play and learning: Research on the impact of coding in the learning of 4-year-olds

Abstract We propose the results of a research that combines the educational and psychological media approach, to verify the pedagogical potential of coding and robotics in the learning processes of 4-year-old children at the cognitive and socio-relational level. The study investigated the impact of unplugged and plugged coding on the skills of spatiality, movement and problem-solving skills, storage and decoding of progressively more complex indications, and single-group interaction of 51 children and three kindergartens using storytelling and the educational robot Cubetto. The work is based on the research carried out by Lee (2020) on the inclusion of coding in early childhood, the theoretical references of Wing (2010) about computational thinking and the theoretical frameworks proposed by Bers (2020) regarding coding as a playful dimension. The data collected through the quantitative and qualitative tools of a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire to educators and a checklist of observations on children recorded the following: • an increase in children’s space, motor and information-storage/decoding skills; • a change in children’s collaborative skills when comparing the results of the plugged and unplugged coding workshops and • the impact of coding to increase children’s performance skills through narrative dimension and play.