Touch Typing For Kids If your child has a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ASD or any other processing challenges, writing by hand can compromise creativity. Students can struggle with handwriting and spelling, leading to low self-esteem and frustration. There are many agencies that can offer advice including the British Dyslexia Association.
Although my son is not dyslexic, he struggled with handwriting for a long time at school and was given a series of handwriting books to work through at home and at times, was told to write out his work again. Using a keyboard to get his ideas down on paper is so much easier for him and indeed many of us.
Learning to touch type is the single most effective way to help a child with SpLD’s, or who struggles with handwriting and getting their thoughts on paper.
Why? Touch typing on a computer is very different from writing with a pen and uses a different brain process. Touch typing has more in common with dancing, swimming and sport and is a physical rather than academic skill. It can become an unconscious and automatic skill, where your brain uses a process of muscle memory (memory through repetition).
Touch typing for kids can help reinforce phonics knowledge, using new found muscle memory to learn word spellings, making the writing process less frustrating. Spelling becomes a series of patterns and finger movements rather than a sequence of letters to remember. Repeated exposure to certain key words during a typing course can help children become more familiar with those words, helping them to spell and sight read.
Any spelling mistakes that are made, can easily be corrected without the stigma of rubbing out marks or messy crossing out. Touch typing is a transferable skill, useful for school work, exams and later working life.
Benefits Touch typing can help children and adults • to work faster • to type at the speed of thought to capture ideas (adding structure later) • to learn the spelling of keywords unconsciously through muscle memory rather than repetitive learning processes which might not work or be remembered • to be more accurate • to concentrate. If you would like to hear more about touch typing, contact us or send us a message. Our courses can be tailored to support the specific needs of your child.
