Computer Touch Typing for Children
First, second and third grade students love the challenge of learning to touch-type. Many began typing letters and notes to their family, friends and teachers as soon as the alphabet key "reaches" are learned.
"Research shows that children with keying skills are able to compose faster, are prouder of their work, produce documents with a neater appearance, have better motivation and demonstrate improved language arts skills."
Nieman, P. (1996, October)
Introducing Early Keyboarding Skills.
Business Education Forum,
51 (1), 27-30
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Learning to Touch Type Affects a Constellation of Skills
Touch-typing training can be a valuable asset in programs targeting cognitive, motor and visual development. Utilizing computers available in schools give educators the opportunity to introduce keyboarding both easily and inexpensively.
Proficiency is improved for instant letter and word recognition and left to right visual tracking, which are important components for fluid reading. Functional goals for hand skills such as tactile discrimination, individual finger movement, fine motor coordination, eye-hand coordination, as well as sequencing, attention to detail, problem solving, endurance, listening skills and posture are all advanced while learning proper touch-typing skills.
With the combination of visual, tactile, kinesthetic and auditory input, children of various abilities and learning styles can effectively be taught touch-typing. Hard-of-hearing and deaf students greatly benefit from early acquisition of good touch-typing skills and are then better prepared to communicate by telephone using a TTY/TDD.
Students whose handwriting is difficult and slow, can benefit from acquiring keyboarding skills. As a byproduct, when presenting a typed spelling list, paragraph or report, students experience pride in their work as it is now indistinguishable from their classmates.
More opportunities for reading, writing and composition translate to improved competency in communication arts.
Page 3: Typing Pilots Goal
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