Can my child learn how to touch-type with a touch-typing app?
I have written a lot about touch-typing and how it is an important skill especially if handwriting is a challenge. I recently found a YouTube video reviewing a touch-typing app that claims to teach touch-typing in 90 minutes and they have a child edition. So does this mean that a child can learn how to touch-type just from using an app?
Abigail Hawkins was a SENDCo in a school and has since set up her consultancy in order to support other SENCO’s across the UK.
In the video below, she reviews the children’s dyslexia edition of the popular touch-typing app, KAZ-Type and demonstrates how it works.
So can a child learn how to touch-type with a touch-typing app?
I don’t think that this is a question that has a simple answer! It really depends upon the child and what their specific educational needs are, but to answer this question I believe that, as parents, we need to think about the following:
The age of the child and stage of education that they are in.
How important is typing at the stage of education that your child is in? For example, in primary education, maybe there just isn’t a need yet to use touch-typing but this could change as they get to the end of primary and onwards to secondary. Certainly at secondary level, this could be an absolute essential skill in keeping up with the level of course work required.
The specific educational needs of the child.
Are they struggling with handwriting and so need to mix in an alternative to rely on for more text heavy school tasks? Maybe using a pencil/pen is so obviously not an option. Even if that is the case, for some, even using a keyboard could be problematic as they try to decode words and it maybe that challenges with dyspgraphia might call for an alternative such as dictation (speech to text).
How engaged they are with the idea of touch-typing.
I remember when I was at school and I had to attend lessons teaching French. Whilst at the age of 49, now, I can see the importance of language learning, at the age of 11, I really didn’t. So as I didn’t NEED to learn French, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of being taught French and I did what I needed to get by. I didn’t like the lessons, the teacher failed to connect with my needs and I walked out of secondary education with a D grade in my GCSE. I just wasn’t motivated to learn French. Later in life when I was travelling to France for leisure and business, I was keen to be able to speak French and would do what I could to learn enough to get by in those situations. I needed to be able to speak French in those situations and so was engaged in learning useful words and phrases.
So the purpose of me sharing this is that the principle is the same for some children. Some kids like to learn for the sake of learning and some because they need to learn. What is the situation for your child?
If they do not feel that they need or want to learn touch-typing then it is unlikely that they are going to engage with an app to learn how to touch-type.
That said, if your child can see the benefit of using a keyboard to help with productivity on coursework assignments then learning to touch-type in 90 minutes could be a game changer. I would advise setting a reasonable expectation on the time it takes to learn any new skill as it will be different for different learners.
What are your thoughts?
Has your child learnt to touch-type? How have they done it? What has worked for them? What didn’t work for them?
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