Your child calls you over: "It doesn't work!" The code is full of things you don't understand, and every instinct tells you to fix it fast. Resist, if you can. Here's what helps more.
Why not just fix it?
When you fix a bug for a child, you solve today's problem and teach them something else: that when they are stuck, someone else will sort it out. When they find the bug themselves, even slowly, they learn how to find the next one. The skill you want to build is not "making this program work," it's "working out why a program doesn't."
Step 1: stay calm and curious
Your tone sets theirs. Try "Interesting, let's see what it's doing" rather than "Oh no, what happened?" A bug is a puzzle, not a problem.
Step 2: ask, don't tell
These questions work for any language:
- "What did you want it to do?" Saying it aloud often reveals the gap.
- "What does it do instead?" Be specific: not "it's broken," but "the score never goes up."
- "What did you change last?" Most bugs come from the most recent edit.
- "Is there an error message? What does it say?" Read it out loud together.
- "Which line do you think is responsible?"
Step 3: shrink the problem
If your child can't find it, make the problem smaller:
- Comment out (temporarily switch off) half the code and see if the bug remains.
- Add a message that prints at various points so you can see how far the program gets.
- Build a tiny version that does only the broken thing.
Step 4: explain it to something
Programmers talk about "rubber duck debugging": explaining the code, line by line, to a rubber duck (or a teddy, or you). The act of explaining makes you notice the mistake. Ask your child to walk you through it, even if you don't understand.
Step 5: take a break
If your child is frustrated, stop. A walk, a snack or sleeping on it often does more than another half hour of staring. Many bugs are obvious the next morning.
When to step in
Stepping in is right when:
- Your child has been stuck for a long time and is losing interest.
- The task is far too hard for their stage.
- The frustration has become upset rather than productive struggle.
Even then, give hints, not solutions: "Look at line 4. What do you think that does?" If you must show the answer, ask them to explain why it works afterwards.
What to say instead of "it's easy"
Avoid "that's easy" or "you just need to..." It makes struggle feel like failure. Try: "That's a tricky one. Bugs like that are hard for everyone."
Use the tools
A good learning platform helps here too. Tiny Coderz's buddy gives hints as questions rather than answers, and its Puzzle Arcade has games where the job is to spot a bug. Reading about common Python mistakes can also help you recognise patterns.
The big picture
A child who learns to calmly track down a bug is learning resilience. For more on the attitude behind it, see praising mistakes: the bug mindset.