Touch typing – Page 2 – Members Forum

janewatsonyork · 2019-04-03T08:23:28Z

Hi, I'm pretty new to working with CYP with physical needs and one of the things I need to least some more about is touch typing. There are some children I'm working with who would benefit from being able to use typing to record due to motor difficulties. Is there anyone who may be able to offer some advice that has a good handle on this? The children I'm working with are generally lower ks2 however I do have some lower secondary children too. Anyone know any good programmes or can offer where to start? I've used doorway online with some VI children but it's a bit dry for what i need really.

Posts: 31

Donna Carter

Apr 03, 2019 9:19 am

(@donnamarie-carterderbyshire-gov-uk)

Eminent Member

Joined: 8 years ago

Hi All,

Our lovely DCC typing tutor put this together for us but it maybe a little out of date because she covers the whole of DCC by herself and has very little admin time. I thought it would be a useful starting point.

Best wishes,

Donna

Typing Games

There are approximately 52 pages of typing games according to Google but if you look closely you will find that some have no relevance to typing at all.

I have just named a few Typing games that I have used that the pupils seem to like. Many others soon become boring. The first one Dance Mat Typing is probably known to everyone.

I have put various web pages on but if you go to Google and type in Typing Games most of them will come up or type in Keyboarding games for Kids or if you know the name of the game just type that in and the game should come up.

 

Dance Mat Typing

Meet the gang an Meet the

There are 4 levels each with 3 stages in them. Various cartoon characters entertain you along the way. Very colourful. You copy type letters and words as they appear on the screen, music is played inbetween and it shows you where each letter is on the keyboard if you have forgotten. www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

 

Keyboard Climber Game

Letters appear on the screen on the same side as they are on the keyboard. You type them and help the monkey climb up 3 levels. One the forest, one the sky and one space to the moon. If you type a wrong letter a coconut hits him on the head and he falls down to the bottom of the level he is on. Most pupils like this game. www.tvokids.com/games/keyboardclimber

 

Keyman Game

Type changing letters to guide KeyMan through the maze. Eat all the energy pills while avoiding the evil typo ghosts. The more levels you do the more Keymen arrive. www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles

 

Bubbles Game

Push your typing skills to their limits by playing the popular Bubbles typing game. In the game your goal is to burst the bubbles by pressing the corresponding key. The longer the game goes on the faster the bubbles rise. When you have missed 10 letters the game ends. www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles

KeyBricks Typing Game 

Type letters to break all bricks of the same colour. Clear screen to advance to the next level! Avoid single bricks with no same coloured neighbours. www.typingmaster.com/individuals/bubbles

Alpha Attack

You can choose whether to play the Easy, Medium or Hard level. Type the letters as they drop, gets faster and faster then the letters turn around in the sky so you have to wait for them to come round again if you did not see the letter. Then numbers are introduced. www.squiglysplayhouse.com/Games

Desert Typing Racer

Desert Typing Racer. Looking for adventure? Like the thrill of driving down the highway at supersonic speeds and jumping over cars in your way? You type the words as they come towards you. If you do type the word you race past cars or jump over them, if you do not manage to type the word before it reaches you it crashes into your windscreen. www.freetypinggame.net

 

Paratrooper Sheep

Sheep fall from the sky. Type the letters in the parachutes. Various levels - gets faster as time goes on. Primary schools like this one. www.sense-lang.org/typing/games

Cup Stacking

Type the letters in black on the cups until all the cups are stacked, then unstack them by typing the letters again. Nice and slow. www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games

Typing Game Level 1 and Level 2

Type the letters to reach the treasure. Nice and slow. www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games

Typing Tidepool

This is a swimming race. There are 5 different swimming lengths each with 2 rounds, a semi-final and final. You type the words as fast as you can to win each race. www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games

Keyboard Revolution

Keyboard Revolution. Get your fingers ready for the groove and type your favourite dancing moves. Fun characters will show off your skills. Find your favourite dance tune to play along. Type the letters as they pass through the timing bar. www.freetypinggame.net

Martian City Defender

Martian City Defender. Flying laser beams are trying to destroy the Martian Colony. Defend the colony and save the little green aliens! Watch out for the letter drops in bonus rounds. Words fall out of the sky, type them before they reach the ground or they blow up on impact. Gradually gets faster. www.freetypinggame.net

Spacebar Invaders

Spacebar Invaders. Strange creatures are wiggling their way down from space. Stop them by typing the words. The more words you type the faster they get. Bonus points for UFOs! www.freetypinggame.net

Type for your Life

Type words to climb up the building then he changes into superman to climb up in the sky, then he changes into an astronaut to climb up in space. www.sense-lang.org/typing/games

 

Outerspace Fleet Commander

Outerspace Fleet Commander. Your mission is to guide the alien fleet through the galaxy, typing letters before they stop you. Use your laser guide on multipliers. www.freetypinggame.net

The Big Brown Bear typing game - Letters drop down and you have to type them. If you are correct it makes a noise, if you are wrong it makes a different noise - Good for Visual Impaired pupils, I would tell them the letters to type and they can hear if they have typed the right letter or not.

The Big Brown Bear keyboard - A keyboard is on the screen, the letter you are to type is ringed in red, when you have typed it another one gets a red ring around it, so the idea is to type each letter as it appears with a red border around it. www.bigbrownbear.co.uk

There are various music typing games but they tend to use only certain letters start off slow and then get very fast even on the easy level. So the pupil gives up before they have really begun. One such game is called Upbeat you only use 6 of the Home keys, choose a song to type to and as the counters come down you type the letter as it reaches the bottom to gain maximum points. www.primarygames.com/arcade/upbeat

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Posts: 8

Sue Westwood

Apr 03, 2019 10:02 am

(@sueenglishtype-com)

Active Member

Joined: 8 years ago

Are you aiming for keyboard familiarity of proper typing by touch? I mean, transferring the skill into the unconscious muscle memory? It's important to be clear on objectives before choosing software and a learning plan. It's a very detailed area and not many people have the time to look into the skill acquisition side and the actual content of the various software programs. But the software design and content is really important, if you want to program the muscle memory. Most of the games mentioned above are really about keyboard familiarity - there's no focus on covering the letters.

Englishtype's Educational Psychologist was the consultant who designed DanceMat for the BBC. Englishtype has more than 200 times the content of DanceMat - Dance Mat is just a taste of touch typing, it's not possible to build the muscle memory using it. Englishtype uses a mixture of lessons, games, a unique speed booster (teaches pairs & patterns of letters, eg. sh, th, ck, ough, ight, and then high frequency words eg. was, said, because) to really program the muscle memory and get the skill into the unconscious where it can help spelling plus it has special spelling lessons where words are read aloud as well as shown onscreen. Englishtype has carefully chosen vocabulary content to be age relevant and useful (including Alpha to Omega as a key source of words). It uses colour to link the fingers to the letters/keys and is used successfully with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, ASD, ADHD and VI (although partially sighted only as not all is voiced).

KAZ does use real words, but not selected for Special Needs friendly or building literacy & spelling. It has recently added colour to help Dyslexic people with visual stress

DanceMat's content (although very small) is focussed on relevant vocabulary where possible.

NessyFingers has carefully chosen word lists, but the teacher needs to supervise the selection from a great variety of word lists to give practice of relevant vocabulary.

Englishtype works a lot with SEN units and schools around the country, I joined this forum on the recommendation of Hounslow SEN who we have worked with for many years. If we can be of any help, do get in touch with us, a quick Google will show you Englishtype, please do get in touch. We designed and teach with the software, unlike any other company.

<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; cursor: text; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">If you are working with children with physical needs, there is 5 finger typist.

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Posts: 105

Jo Lambert

Apr 03, 2019 1:52 pm

(@jo-lambertessex-gov-uk)

Estimable Member

Joined: 8 years ago

Sorry if this is mentioned elsewhere but another free on is Typing Club: www.typingclub.com

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Posts: 0

Anonymous

Apr 03, 2019 5:17 pm

(@Anonymous)

Joined: 1 second ago

Touch typing can be very frustrating for younger children as the keyboards tend to be too big for their hands to use home keys etc.

It can also be very frustrating if they have difficulty with finger isolation and coordination difficulties.

For many of my younger students with PD I have suggested that they work on keyboard familiarity, maybe even using four fingers and the thumb for the space bar. Keyboard practise needs to be supervised to avoid common errors such as always using Caps Lock to write capital letters. Nessy fingers and Dance Mat are okay for developing this level of typing.

I attended a workshop on teaching keyboard skills for students, sorry, can't remember who delivered it, but the recommendation was not to teach touch typing until KS2.

hope that helps

Julie

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Posts: 24

Gilly Shankland

Apr 05, 2019 7:49 pm

(@gillyshangmail-com)

Eminent Member

Joined: 8 years ago

I agree with Julie!

Many CYP with PD are not able to be touch typists and, in today's world where so many children have access to tablets and phones, touch typing may be of limited use. It's keyboard familiarity that's of greater importance for these CYP.

We also need to consider Voice-to-Text, which is available in the Microsoft Office and Google Docs suites as well as on IOS, Android and Microsoft phones. This is now accessible and useable for CYP with reasonable diction and can be a good option for some of our CYP.

Consider how naturally CYP use Google Assistant or Alexa, yet alone Siri and Bixby and more! I wonder how long typing will be the input method of choice?!

We need a smorgasbord of approaches to meet the needs of all our CYP and, that said, the information and links already provided are very useful.

Thank you!

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