I go out of my way to help my students overcome any challenges they are facing.
This week I’ve been working with an 8 year old who is learning to touch type because he cannot hold a pen. He just doesn’t have the strength in his fingers.
The first challenge was finger positioning. His fingers just didn’t want to curl onto the keys. Also the movement of pressing down was difficult for him. His fingers were not able to stay on the home row keys.
The last thing you want is for a child to get disheartened, lose confidence and give up
So I came up with a number of solutions:
🔸I adapted the lessons for him, allowing him to practice keystrokes over and over again before moving on.
🔸I bought him a different keyboard. I don’t usually recommend small keyboards with flat keys but in this case it made pressing the keys easier for him.
🔸I colour coded the keyboard to match the programme so he could match his fingers to the letters.
🔸We usually cover their hands, but for this student, it was important for him to see what his fingers were doing. We will cover his hands when he is ready.
🔸I used velcro stickers on the A and semi colon keys as well as the F and J keys so that he had a tactile reminder of where his fingers needed to be.
These modifications have made a huge difference, not only to his typing, but also with his confidence.
This is something you will never get with a free online touch typing course. If you’d like to find out more about my work, please message me.
