Promoting Computational Literacy Among Children

Promoting computational literacy for children involves helping young learners understand, engage with, and shape the computational world around them. Our research investigates how children can meaningfully learn about computing through diverse approaches that connect to their interests, contexts, and experiences. Current studies explore how children can develop foundational understandings of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through age-appropriate frameworks and learning technologies; how computing can support civic engagement and empower young people as active contributors to their communities; and how physical play can be integrated with computational learning to make coding more active, social, and playful. Collectively, this work seeks to advance theory and design in computing education by broadening what counts as computational literacy and how it can be cultivated across varied forms of learning and participation.

Relevant Publications

Jia, K., Leung, T., Cheung, N., Li, Y., & Yu, J. (2025). Developing a holistic AI literacy framework for children. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 25(2), Article 21, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3727986

Jia, K., & Yu, J. (2025). Exploring computational thinking with physical play through design. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25). Yokohama, Japan. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713443

Cowit, N., & Yu, J. (2024). Supporting physically active CS education for children: Exploring the design of physical play–friendly coding blocks. In Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’24) (Article 308, pp. 1–7). Honolulu, HI, United States. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650973

Yu, J., Xu, T., Kelley, C., Ruppert, J., & Roque, R. (2024). Leveraging physical activities to support learning for young people via technologies: An examination of educational practices across the field. Review of Educational Research, 95(4), 775–821. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241248464

Yu, J., Hayden, R., & Roque, R. (2023). Exploring computational thinking with physical play through design. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’23). Chicago, IL, United States. https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3589365

Yu, J., & Roque, R. (2022). Young children’s perceptions of coding and implications. In Proceedings of the 21st Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC ’22) (pp. 448–451). Braga, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.1145/3501712.3535285

Yu, J., Zheng, C., Tamashiro, M., Gonzalez-Millan, C., & Roque, R. (2020). CodeAttach: Engaging young children in computational thinking through physical play activities. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’20), February 9–12, 2020, Sydney, NSW, Australia. https://doi.org/10.1145/3374920.3374972

Yu, J., Ruppert, J., Roque, R., & Kirshner, B. (2020). Youth civic engagement through computing: Cases and implications. ACM Inroads, 11(4), 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1145/343272

Yu, J., & Roque, R. (2019). A review of computational toys and kits for young children. International Journal of Child–Computer Interaction, 21, 17–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2019.04.001

Yu, J., & Roque, R. (2018). A survey of computational kits for young children. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’18) (pp. 289–299). Trondheim, Norway. https://doi.org/10.1145/3202185.3202738 (Best Student Paper Award)