Basic Computer Skills Your Preschooler Should Learn
In this Article
Computers are a structural part of today’s evolved style of education that encourages kids to apply thinking skills instead of rote learning. Thus, it’s never too early to learn something as essential as computers!
With ever evolving technology, computers have become an integral part of our life. A vast majority of schools are now introducing computers, I-pads, etc., as part of their curriculum and have also started asking children to work on assignments and projects on computers. Our education system is evolving to research-based education where children are refrained from rote learning, and computers are a big part of this evolution.
You might be thinking a is too young to learn computers, however, you must’ve noticed that by this age, they are used to gadgets at home. Pre-schoolers will learn computers faster than we think and we have a few ways by which, you can introduce computers and teach some basic skills to your child easily. Don’t fret and delay – The early bird gets the worm, after all!
- To begin with, teach your child letters on the keyboard. Open a word document and teach them to press each letter and let them see it appear on the screen. This is will be a thrilling and highly engaging exercise for your child. It is the best way to teach both alphabets as well as basic computer skills. Similarly, you can also teach numbers to your child.
- Once your child is familiar with the keys and alphabets, you can teach them to open internet explorer. Let any educational website be the default page for internet explorer and let them explore the site.
- Save some videos of nursery rhymes in a folder on the desktop. Then teach him to double-click to open the folder and then double-click to open the video.
- Slowly you can teach about volume control and keyboard shortcuts to increase or decrease the volume of the laptop.
- Give an entertaining introduction of the mouse. Show him how to hold the mouse. To teach left and right-click, put different types of stickers. For e.g. On the left side, you can put a smiley sticker and on the right side you can put a star sticker and then teach them what happens when he will click on smiley, similarly what will happen if he will click on star.
- You can also teach listening to music and introduce headphones at this stage. Demonstrate to them where the headphones are plugged and how to put them on their ears correctly in order to clearly listen to a song.
Some guidelines to remember
- It is best to wait till your child turns three years old before you officially introduce computers and start teaching them those basic skills.
- It is not a good idea to expose your child to the rays that emerge from the screen. Learning computers before that age can be a bit stressful for the kid.
- Needless to say, supervision is extremely critical at this stage. Be with your child at all times when he is accessing the computer. Please do not leave your child alone while he is the computer.
Over a period of time, practice will make your child well versed handling the basics of computers, which will prove essential when your child reaches school!
