Typing Tutorials For Kids And Beginners

What typing programs and typing lesson websites are recommended by librarians, teachers, parents, and students? Discover the best typing (keyboarding) lessons with step-by-step instruction, repetition, and fun!

Why do kids need typing lessons?

Why do kids need to learn typing? It’s not just about typing skills or typing speed, but it’s about growing this necessary skill to use the keyboard for academic and future work success/

The benefits for kids include getting thoughts down on paper faster, building efficacy that they can accomplish challenging goals, building speed of processing, gaining the ability to edit quickly, developing less aversion to writing, spending less time on school work, improving fine motor skills, and improving spelling.

Touch typing (keyboarding) is a BIG improvement over hunt and peck methods kids develop. According to this article, touch typing is an example of cognitive automaticity which means we don’t have to think about what we’re doing.  This frees up our working memory to use our brains for higher-level thinking.

Honestly, I think typing instruction should be a required class for kids! In my experience, my high school touch typing class was THE BEST and MOST USEFUL class I took in high school. (Also, Home Ec– remember those days? I learned how to boil an egg!)

That’s why I signed my kids up for an in-person touch-typing class one summer of middle school. And the class paid off big time because almost everything they do in high school and in university requires a keyboard. Being able to type means they can get their thoughts down on paper faster and finish sooner.

Consider these keyboarding benefits:

• typing well lets you get your thoughts on paper faster
• typing helps you finish your assignments faster

I’ve learned that around 8 or 9 years old is a good age to start typing lessons. For one, kids’ hands are big enough to reach the keys on the keyboard. This is also a good age because a child’s hand-eye coordination will improve quicker than at younger ages.

And even though their hands are small, according to my daughters’ typing teachers, we type from our shoulders, not our hands. This makes it possible to learn typing in early elementary grades.

What is Touch Typing?

With touch typing, keyboarding becomes a fluid movement where you don’t need to look where your hands are.

Teach beginners the home row keys and use a keyboard that has bumps on the f and j keys OR add your own bumps with small triangle stickers. My children’s typing teachers told the kids to make their hands into tiger claws with “thumbs kissing.”

So kids don’t look at their hands, cover the keyboard with the lid of a cardboard box. This will help your kids look at the screen as they slowly learn the entire keyboard and increase in difficulty levels.

My kids progress through the keyboard’s lines (middle, bottom, top) and the individual keys.

Don’t let your kids advance on new keys until they’ve shown mastery of the first keys taught.

Learning Disabilities & Advocacy

We need to help kids with output — to know what to do with the input they are reading or hearing.

This skill is essential for all learners but especially children with learning differences.

If you have a child whose handwriting means they turn in incomplete work, or it limits what they produce in school, consider typing lessons and allowing them to use a keyboard for school. (Either a laptop or a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard with a tablet.)

But . . . what if your child’s teachers disagree about allowing a keyboard?

Advocate with information.

Track how long your child takes for homework with a keyboard and without a keyboard. (Information is power!)

Get a writing sample written by hand and another typed on a keyboard. Often because of output possibilities with the keyboard, the difference is so notable that it will make your point. (One sentence by hand versus a paragraph with keyboarding?)