Teaching coding to learning-disabled children with Kokopelli's World

摘要

As computer programming becomes more widely embraced as a suitable activity for children, the question arises as to how best to include learing-disabled students in learning coding. The problem is that programming requires a variety of cognitive skills and abilities, many of which may be out of reach for these children. We present “Kokopelli's World,” a new block-based programming environment and set of lessons designed to introduce and teach some of the basics of computer programming to students with learning disablities. We desvribe the motivation and design for the system and an initial study involving students using the system. finally, we conclude with an analysis of our results and some proposals frfuture work.