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International changes in policy and curricula (notably recent developments in England) have led to a focus on the role of computing education in the early years. As interest in the potential of computing education has increased, there has been a proliferation of programming tools designed for young children. While these changes are broadly to be welcomed, the pace of change has arguably led to more attention to the tools than to key questions about pedagogy. This paper proposes three areas of research (Logo; computational thinking; and teaching STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics) that may inform computing education for young children and suggests that a greater focus on thinking skills and connections to manifestations of computers in the real world is needed. Above all, the paper calls for an informed debate about the trend towards introducing computing education to children in the early years. IntroductionThe trend towards computing education for children in the early years presents an exciting opportunity to tap into children's early potential for learning, especially if it takes place before some of the gender stereotypes associated with computing (Robertson, 2013;Wajcman, 2007) begin to influence their choices. Children in the UK start school at about the age of 5, and in this paper we refer to the 'early years' as the period immediately before and after this transition, including children between the ages of 3 and 6.

Manipulatives-physical learning materials such as cubes or tiles-are prevalent in educational settings across cultures and have generated substantial research into how actions with physical objects may support children's learning. The ability to integrate digital technology into physical objects-so-called 'digital manipulatives'-has generated excitement over the potential to create new educational materials. However, without a clear understanding of how actions with physical materials lead to learning, it is difficult to evaluate or inform designs in this area. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of effective tangible technologies for children's learning by summarising key debates about the representational advantages of manipulatives under two key headings: offloading cognition-where manipulatives may help children by freeing up valuable cognitive resources during problem solving, and conceptual metaphors-where perceptual information or actions with objects have a structural correspondence with more symbolic concepts. The review also indicates possible limitations of physical objects-most importantly that their symbolic significance is only granted by the context in which they are used. These arguments are then discussed in light of tangible designs drawing upon the authors' current research into tangibles and young children's understanding of number.

In a qualitative study, a follow up to a similar study conducted 30 year previously, we asked children aged between 5 and 8 about their knowledge and beliefs about computers. Although the children were insightful in their answers about the activities for which it might be appropriate to use technology, and willingly engaged with the thorny question of whether computers can think, their responses indicated a lack of a factual understanding of how computers work. Consequently, this paper argues that children should be taught basic information about how computers work because they will not become aware of this through regular exposure to technology. The paper offers some simple explanations of how computers work, and whether computers could think, which we hope will be of use to practitioners who wish to cover these topics in their classrooms.

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