Teaching Kids to Type: 5 Tips for Young Beginners

For children learning how to touch-type for the first time, the first lesson they get is to know when and where to place their hands on the keyboard. Their typing practice includes recognizing the home row keys and typing using the correct fingers.

But as they progress through the course, every typing test lesson introduces a handful of keys to practice on until they feel comfortable finding them without taking their eyes off of the screen.

As kids master new letters, their accuracy and confidence increases, right along with your speed. However, as parents, you need to keep in mind that not every beginner gets perfection right away.

Of course, it will take a handful of lessons to feel comfortable with touch-typing. The typing technique is what's needed for kids, and accuracy and speed come later as it involves developing new muscle memory.

In addition, if kids have spent most of their life so far, typing with just a few fingers, they're not just learning a new skill. They're working to overcome ingrained a "hunt-and-peck" habit at the same time.

5 Tips for Kids Who are New at Typing

Typing is a critical skill in both academic and work environments. So in teaching kids how to touch-type early, you're setting them up for success in the future. Nobody is ever too old to learn how to touch-type, and no one is too young either.

So here are 5 honest tips that can help you become a faster typist, improve your career prospects and lead the way for success in further education.

#1 Mind the kids' posture

There are 3 reasons why children must sit properly at the computer:

• Ensure adequate blood flow to their fingers
• Facilitate the correct positioning of the hands
• Avoid injuring yourself

An injury acquired from improper typing is carpal tunnel syndrome. It's characterized by a dull and aching pain along with numbness in the wrist, lower arm or hand. But kids can avoid this in the future by keeping their elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, with their wrists loose -- hands lightly resting above the keyboard.

Before you begin any typing lesson, adjust the height of the screen so your child's neck is straight. Be mindful that they don't hunch. Place the feet firm and flat on the floor, make sure to shake the hands, take a few deep breaths, and of course, let them relax.

Kids can learn this routine as a beginner, and they can build healthy typing habits that will protect them from any mishaps later on.

#2 Involve multi-sensory learning

Multi-sensory learning gets all the senses involved, and it helps your kids acquire new skills that can be particularly useful in typing later on. Ears, eyes, fingers -- all work together when they see words on a screen, hear it read aloud, and have it typed with the correct fingers.

There are plenty of multi-sensory programs available, and the best guides can help your kids develop into talented children with wicked keyboard skills.

#3 Make it short and sweet

For kids who are having way too much fun with their typing games and getting competitive with a typing speed test, sitting at the keyboards while staring at a screen for far too long isn't healthy. Ideal lessons for child beginners should be no shorter than 20 minutes and not longer than an hour.

Repetition is key for automatizing movements, but a short and frequent practice does tend to be more effective. Try to fit a little bit of typing practice every day, at several times a week.

This helps train your kids' hands, so they gradually develop the needed muscle memory in their fingers.

#4 Learning from mistakes

When kids are first learning how to type, accuracy isn't as essential as first mastering the typing technique. In fact, making the same mistake repeatedly can be a bit of a blessing in disguise because it often alerts your kids to incorrect finger positioning.

For particularly hard movements, try speaking the letter out loud as kids are typing it, and if everything else fails, put blu-tacks on the key to make them easier for your fingers to find.

Remember that it's important to master each lesson with 80% greater accuracy before the kids move on.

#5 Let the kids have fun

The best way to have fun with learning touch-typing is through typing games. And when the kids have learned all of the keys, they can then start playing around with their new skill. When they succeed at doing this, you can gradually teach them computer shortcuts too, plus other handy keyboard tricks.

Typing Jobs for the Future

When they get even better, you might be looking at a professional typist in the very near future. But before they do, they'll be excelling at school first.