Touch Typing Courses For Children With Dyslexia & Other Learning Differences

Touch typing uses all of the fingers on the keyboard to type words without looking. You don’t have to look down at your hands so you can stay focused on the screen. Hunting and pecking on the keyboard using two or three fingers takes a lot of effort and concentration. For dyslexic children who may struggle with concentration and memory, by the time they have located the keys, they may end up losing their initial thoughts. It’s so frustrating for them. Touch typing avoids all of this. Yes, it takes a lot of practice, but once learnt, it’s never forgotten.

Touch typing helps to reinforce phonics knowledge by learning to spell words using muscle memory. This helps to make writing so much less frustrating and written work more fluid and effective.

Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) is frequently used in the education community. SpLD refers to a difficulty that is specific to a particular area, or that affects a particular process.

SpLD includes other learning related differences such as:

• Dyslexia, affects reading, writing, and information processing.
• Dysphasia, speech and language delay and/or deficit.
• Dyspraxia, motor and co-ordination difficulties.
• Dyscalculia, difficulty with mathematical concepts, calculations and interpreting mathematical symbols.
• Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD).
• Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome.
• ASD – auditory processing disorder.

Many of our students come to us to learn to touch type because they are dyslexic. According to the British Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a neurological difference that primarily affects reading and writing skills. Dyslexic children have difficulty processing and remembering information that they see and hear, which can affect their learning and literacy skills. It can also cause them to have low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in the classroom.

Typing at the speed of thought
Touch typing helps a child to think freely and type at the speed of thought. There is no distraction in having to look down at the keyboard to hunt and peck for the correct key. Making familiar patterns with the fingers starts to become automatic so that they begin to spell sight words and common words just by remembering the movement of their fingers on the keyboard.

Kinesthetic Learning
The repeated movement of their fingers on the keys is especially useful for those children who are kinesthetic learners, where they learn more effectively by doing something physical.

Less stressful in exams
It means that in class or in exams, children with dyslexia can get their thoughts down on paper more easily. They don’t have to worry about how to form a word on paper. They don’t have to hold a pen in the right way to make a mark and they don’t have to make the letters and words look neat or spaced out.

No more messy handwriting
Using a computer, they can type freely, without worrying about messy handwriting or errors. If they have learnt to touch-type properly, they will be typing accurately, barely having to hit the backspace key to correct their work. Another huge bonus, when they are trying to stay focused on their thoughts.

Improved productivity
Concentration improves and output increases. They will be able to ‘write’ faster, sometimes up to five times their normal writing speed. This will save them time and make learning so much easier and enjoyable.

Increased confidence
There are so many reasons why touch typing is the right choice for children with dyslexia. It helps them to transform their thoughts and ideas freely into words, giving them the confidence and ability to communicate effectively.

For best results, learning to touch type should not be rushed. It involves a lot of muscle memory which can easily be overwhelmed if learning takes place too quickly. Learning to touch type is best learnt over a number of weeks to allow the muscle memory to work best. Every child is different and how long it takes them depends on a number of factors such as age, natural ability, and how much time they can dedicate to their practice. On average, it will take about 20+ hours to be touch typing confidently with a good accuracy and speed.

Children learn touch typing by learning muscle memory. Muscle memory is where finger movements start to become a pattern that is learnt off by heart. After lots of practice, the movement becomes unconscious and stays in the brain, so that we can recall this information at our fingertips without any conscious thought. It’s a bit like learning to ride a bike. When you first start, you are a bit wobbly, not quite sure of the movements, but after lots of practice, you don’t need to consciously think any more.

It’s the same with touch typing. Like any new skill, it takes patience and dedication. With the right support from our touch typing tutors, your child will succeed. We will carefully monitor and support your child’s progress throughout the course, so that they feel confident, comfortable and happy to learn.

Sometimes parents ask us if their child needs to be good at spelling. Spelling skills are not necessary for this touch typing course. But learning to touch type will help with their spelling because they will be learning to spell words by learning finger patterns.

With other touch typing courses or programmes, it tends to be a one sized fits all approach. And this doesn’t work for children with an SpLD, such as dyslexia. Other courses expect the student to learn too quickly which can overwhelm the working memory and before long your child has given up. It’s important to select the right course for your child so that it is designed at the right level and pace for them. Learning needs to be gentle, and build up in smaller incremental steps. Our tutor supported courses will ensure that this happens.

We offer a few courses to help children with dyslexia. The choice will depend on your child and how they learn best. We recommend that you give us a call to discuss your child’s needs in more detail so that we can suggest the best course option for them.

As a guide, we would probably suggest the 10 Week Flexi-Time Home Course Plus+ option so that your child has two lessons face to face with one of our tutors on Zoom before continuing working from home remotely with one hour of practice each week. Please refer to the course page for more details.

Alternatively, we have a Dyslexia Rolling Course which is a fantastic remote course. It’s easy to follow with simplified lessons that build up incrementally. It’s based on lots of repetition which in turn gives great results and therefore builds confidence.

As always, all of our courses are tutor supported with written feedback delivered by email each week. If you feel your child would benefit from face to face lessons, we can also offer one to one lessons on Zoom with a tutor or you attend at one of our centres.

If you are not sure which course to choose, you can also book in for a 30 minute assessment lesson with one of our senior tutors, so we can best assign a course for your child. Always give us a call first if you are unsure.

We have many students come to us who have tried learning to touch type before. Even though they may have some previous knowledge, we start them from the beginning so that they can follow our tried and tested procedure, ensuring the very best results for them. Whatever they have learnt before will stand them in good stead when repeating some of the letter keys again.

As well as having a specific course designed for children with dyslexia, our tutors will keep a close eye on your child’s stats, checking their accuracy and any problem keys. If we notice a drop in accuracy, we will set those lessons again for practice and give tips on how to overcome any problems. We won’t move them on until they are feeling really confident. Sometimes we may contact you to have a chat about your child’s progress if they are really struggling with something in particular or suggest some lessons face to face on Zoom to iron out any problem areas helping them to get back on track.

If your child has an SpLD, we highly recommend that you support your child at home throughout the course. We ask parents to help them read and understand our instructions and feedback each week. Also to check their posture whilst they are doing their lessons, making sure they are not peeking at their fingers and also checking that their fingers are in the right position on the keyboard.

Some of our students have their one-to-one lessons from school. We can discuss this with you and liaise with your teacher if required.

Our tutors are there to offer support and encouragement to your child. With our flexi-time courses, they will be looking at your child’s typing stats each week, and doing playbacks of their real keystrokes so they can see first hand what their typing looks like so they can easily spot any problems. They will then collate that information and write a summary of their results by email, focusing on offering words of encouragement and an outline of what they need to do and how to do it. These step by step instructions means that your child can complete their lessons with confidence. With our Zoom courses, your tutor will be live in the session with your child, demonstrating what they need to do as well as give your child valuable tips and tricks so that they achieve a fantastic final result.

Final speed will depend on a number of factors, the main ones being natural ability, age and also how much practice your child does. Speed will increase naturally the more a person practices and so we see speeds go up as learning progresses. We will set certain speed exercises throughout the course once your child is confident to do so, and we hope that most students finish the course with a speed of at least 20wpm.