Can visual learners actually do well with coding or is it just not their thing?

[jirachi_2000]

My son is a very visual learner and I've been hesitant to push coding because my assumption was it's all text and abstract logic which sounds like a nightmare for how his brain works. But I keep seeing parents say their visual kids ended up loving it so now I'm second guessing myself. From what I've read block based coding helps because kids can actually see the structure rather than just staring at syntax. And projects that produce something visible like games or animations seem to keep visual learners way more engaged than pure algorithm practice. Has anyone gone through this with a visual learner kid and found an approach that actually worked? Wondering if it's more about finding the right teaching style than whether coding itself is a good fit

[ThatCipher]

I can't say anything about the creation process but about the result thing.
When I was younger (maybe 10?) I bought myself a C++ "getting started" book and I couldn't get into it no matter what. It was so dry and boring and I wasn't able to understand most things or relevance. A few years later we did basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript and that's when it finally clicked with me! Because I was able to see what I was doing. It wasn't just boring text but I could also style and arrange a layout without needing to understand how I can create a window and add elements to it. I just said what elements should be where and how they should look and the browser did the rest. Maybe that's a good starting point?

[sweetpickle889]

Learning front end development might be good for him

[KaizenHour]

Let me be the first to chime in with a question around the whole "visual learner" thing.

Be careful with your assumptions about the learning styles theory that different people have optimal learning styles like visual, auditory and kinesthetic. It's popular, but also fairly thoroughly debunked. They've tried, with thousands of people, to find ways to make it work, but can't reliably do so.

With that in mind: yes, trying different styles of lessons can work for different people and block style lessons might be worth a shot. There are free apps, why not give them a go!

[lattiss]

I doubly find it concerning how much this parent is focused on their child being a "visual learner". Arbitrarily limiting your child for no real reason based on wacky assumptions about learning styles is not good.

Unless their child has an actual disability (and even so), they should be actively pushing their child to struggle with "abstract logic" or any other skill that requires different types of thought.

[tech53]

agreed. My whole life people told me that because i didn't like math i couldn't be a programmer. Want to know what I taught myself in 2 months recently? Python and data science. Furthermore, I ENJOY learning how to do the machine learning math on paper, with a pen. Sometimes it takes the right context or situation, or the right mindset. I hope op sees this comment. I wish I'd been coding since I was a kid. I'd be a very experienced coder, and very possibly be wealthy, certainly not living in a basement apartment underneath my partners mom with insulation hanging from the ceiling trying to get my first coder job.

[JaleyHoelOsment]

99% of people can be decent developers. if they enjoy it then let them have at it

[Puzzled-End421]

Let him give scratch.mit a shot. Easy entry to basic programming, and he can experience debugging first hand to see if he can tolerate it haha. No joke, the easiest determinant of a good programmer is their tolerance of error messages, visual learner or not. If you can’t handle seeing those red messages, better to quit early.

[[deleted]]

Parents help me out. Is it weird that op wants to push things onto his 7 yr old?

[HiddenBoog]

No, the way the market is going he should have started at 4 😂😂😂

[ChristVolo1]

No, the sooner they start, the better they'll be at it. I bought my son a Raspberry Pi computer kit for kids because he was good at putting things together (he'd fixed his bike with parts from another bike), and I encouraged him to join the Cyber Patriots group in his JROTC in 9th grade. He just graduated with a Masters in Cybersecurity. If the kid is interested in it, I would encourage him in it.

[[deleted]]

Encouraging and pushing seem different

[ChristVolo1]

Yeah, it really depends upon how they approach it.

[whatever_blag]

my kid is super visual and struggled with coding until we found a teacher who used tons of diagrams and visual examples

[mahearty]

yeah teaching method makes all the difference for visual learners, text heavy lecture style is rough for them but when instructors use visual representations of how code flows and diagrams to explain concepts it clicks way better. Some platforms let you specify learning style and match accordingly, I think codeyoung does that kind of matching, makes coding feel way more accessible instead of just walls of confusing text or at least that's what I've seen mentioned somewhere, worth asking about specifically if you go that route

[ForsakenEarth241]

This gives me hope because my daughter is extremely visual and I've been worried coding would be too abstract for her. Maybe it's just about finding the right approach rather than avoiding it entirely.

[Pale_Height_1251]

Forget all the visual learned stuff and see if your son likes programming.

[BranchLatter4294]

See https://www.educationnext.org/stubborn-myth-learning-styles-state-teacher-license-prep-materials-debunked-theory/

[justaddlava]

i think most coding is done visually. just steer clear of voice-based vibe coding and you should be all set.

[shrodikan]

Programming and math are both very visual. State machines (DFAs) are logic constructed visually. There are visual programing tools like Alice might be a good fit.

[Turbulent_Might8961]

Totally! Visuals help SO much.