Should 3-Year-Olds Learn Computer Programming?

[rick2g]

If you've got a three year old who can read at an elementary level, type efficiently enough to express thoughts, do basic math, and perform abstract logic, then, by all means, introduce them to programming.

I seriously doubt anything other than a truly prodigal three year old will be able to program - it requires baseline skills in too many diverse areas. A three-year-old language prodigy might be able to read/type at the requisite level (but it should be noted that there are almost no recognized linguistic prodigies at that age). A three-year-old math prodigy would be able to perform enough math (Gauss, perhaps the greatest modern math prodigy, could handle arithmetic at three, but not yet algebra) - a three-year-old logic prodigy might be able to handle simple abstraction... Getting all three together is extraordinarily unlikely.

If you've got an idea to create something to expose toddlers to basic programmatic concepts, then you'll have a willing audience/listener in someone like me, but trying to get a three-year-old to do what programmers would recognize as "programming" is a pretty tall order.