REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1535135
Integrating Computational Thinking in Children Aged 3 to 6: Challenges and Opportunities in Early Childhood Education
Provisionally accepted
- Universidad de La Sabana, Chía, Colombia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Computational thinking has emerged as a crucial skill in 21st-century education. Although most research has focused on education levels beyond primary school, this article reviews the impact of its integration in early childhood education, specifically for children aged three to six years old. Through a systematic review of 84 studies published in Scopus and Web of Science between 2013 and 2023, pedagogical strategies and technological tools used to develop computational thinking in early childhood are explored. The findings reveal that while computational thinking fosters key cognitive and motor skills, the lack of appropriate materials and teacher training hinders effective implementation. The article highlights the need for continuous teacher training programs and the comprehensive inclusion of computational thinking in early childhood curricula. Furthermore, it identifies a lack of consistent assessment tools that measure the long-term effects of these interventions on child development
Keywords: Computational thinking, early childhood education, Educational Robotics, cognitive development, teacher training
Received: 26 Nov 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Perez Valdes, Boude Figueredo and Vargas Sanchez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Oscar Boude Figueredo, Universidad de La Sabana, Chía, Colombia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.