What do Mums think about their dyslexic children learning to touch-type as a way to help with learning?
This blog article is sponsored by KAZ-TYPE.
For five years I have been collating information and inspiration that I can share to you the supporter of a dyslexic learner. As a parent myself, I have seen first hand the difference that good typing skills have had on both of my daughter’s attainment throughout education. In fact, beyond secondary schooling this is an essential skill for anyone. We should acknowledge that for a child with dyslexia, touch-typing may not always be a good solution for getting learning down on paper rather than perhaps speech to text (dictation), but for many it could be.
I was curious to see what parents of children with dyslexia thought about touch typing and interestingly, the comments almost overwhelmingly came from Mums.
So let us explore what I found out together and I will make some comments in response.
A game changer!
“Game changer for my son. Typing helped him remember the letters when nothing else did. He now can type sentences for some assignments but he still is reversing letters and numbers.”
Mika’s comment is awesome. For me it shares a great insight into how the tactile nature of typing (kinaesthetic learning?) can help to reinforce learning in literacy. What Mika shared also shows that touch typing isn’t necessarily going to fully help all children with dyslexia as each child will have different learning needs.
Touch-typing is a life skill.
“Has helped my dyslexic child who has just started secondary school.
It’s a life skill and I think it should be part of the schools curriculum.”
In this comment, it is clear that if a child is able to touch type, then it would put them in good stead for the future should the workplace require those skills. It makes me question why touch-typing is not on the national curriculum as surely this skill would benefit the majority of learners and not just those who are dyslexic.
A self-taught skill leading to writing at 87 wpm!
“My son (14) found his own way around the keyboard and can type at 87 words per minute. The teachers are starting to allow him to type rather than write his notes in class which is vital. For him writing was extremely slow, messy and seemed to require all of his attention when he should have been focussing on the class subject matter. Typing doesn’t seem to create this issue as it is automated now.
For him it is a necessity and one thing he excels at over his classmates and even his teachers which gives him confidence.”
I absolutely love this quotation as it resonates with my own experience of using a keyboard (I should add that I type at about 40 words per minute not the fabulous 87!) where I personally decided that handwriting was too slow and uncomfortable and that I need to learn to type. This child seems to have totally cracked it for himself and what’s more this has helped him to focus on learning and not stress about how to output his learning. Typing has become automatic so that he doesn’t need to think about it. I often here about this being an advantage of good typing skills. The hands seem to just do their thing whilst the brain thinks about the important stuff. It is definitely less stressful getting homework done like this.
Touch-typing is not for everyone.
“Personally my son struggled, trying to remember where keys were and what fingers to use were just an added task for him and got too confusing. I think if the typing could have become more automatic for him it would have been beneficial.”
Claire makes an extremely important point. Just because one dyslexic child has found a strategy that works for them in being productive with school work, it doesn’t follow that it would work for another child. Kids with dyslexia have differing needs. By all means try a new skill but be realistic if it doesn’t work out. It doesn’t mean that the child can’t do their homework or school work, it just means that another strategy should be used, perhaps dictation (which can be tried for free on Office 365 if you have that installed).
A way to increase output and demonstrate real ability.
“As a former teacher, I saw that it could help some children increase their output and demonstrate their real ability more easily. Not true across the board. There are other issues that go with typing (e.g. learning to touch type and being able to manage the online files).”
A good pragmatic view from Lucy on how touch typing helps some to increase output and demonstrate real ability more easily. Yes it is not for everyone, and this skill is preceded by a learning curve as well as other challenges surrounding managing the content that is written on a PC.
Concluding comments.
I have seen many comments from parents about touch typing and they have been mixed. There are of course pro’s and cons in learning a new skill and as a parent or teacher, one has to make a decision on the progress of the child and whether the learning curve is worth it to develop the skill.
Personally, when my daughter learnt to type, it unlocked her, took away the stress (to a point) and helped her to improve productivity and, more importantly, demonstrated her learning on paper (which is so often subject to assessment for grades etc).
Some children, students and adults with dyslexia, will simply not be able to use a keyboard effectively as challenges with ‘decoding’ what they want to type simply is not what they can do. Thankfully, this seems to be a small proportion of the dyslexic community which tells me that at the very least learning to touch type is at least worth a try as the probability of it helping could be quite high.
Options for learning to touch type?
Like all new skills there seems to be multiple ways of learning them and depending upon the method of learning the length of time involved. There are literally face to face (or zoom to zoom at the moment) classes available or various levels of software that can help. The sponsor of this article, Kaz-Type claim that their dyslexia friendly software can help a child to touch type in 90 minutes compared to courses that could take a lot longer. What is important is that you find a way of learning that works for your child and that you are realistic as to whether or not touch-typing is something that fits in with their own personal way of learning and working at school. For many, as Mika says, “It’s a game changer!”
How good is your touch-typing?
Try this free test.
