You want to put wings on the heels of your children? Teach them to touch type
John SutherlandProfessor of English Literature, University College London
Touch typing is a gift! The gift of extra free time and unhindered imaginative thought. It is a life-skill that no 21st century child should be without – and yet it is not part of the National Curriculum.
We expect our children to learn – at school and at home and over a lengthy period of time – to read and write to the point were these skills become second nature. In a world dominated by computers, we expect them, seemingly over-night, to teach themselves to use a computer keyboard.
The result is a two or three fingered ‘hunt and peck’ method that will always require concentration on the process of typing, so making the process of thinking take back-stage and second place.
An average touch typing speed is 60 words per minute and well-practised touch typers can reach 90-120 words per minute. That, according to research*, is homework, coursework, university essay and work-place tasks achieved in up to an eighth of the time it would take a ‘hunter pecker’.
What’s more, at just 30wpm, touch typing is proven to become automatic – it enters the physical memory, leaving the fingers to take the strain and allowing the brain to devote itself to WHAT is being produced and not HOW. Creativity, and not typing, takes centre stage. Freed from the necessity to look at the keyboard to find letters, typing becomes as automatic as speaking or thinking and concentration improves.
If you are dyslexic, writing by hand can be a trade-off between coherence and creativity. Using a keyboard allows pupils to concentrate on the big things...Quite simply, most dyslexics report that they can ‘think better’ when they type
Louise GreenChair of the Professional Association of Teachers of Students with specific Learning Difficulties
