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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Touch typing for 6yr olds

21 replies

Rosetintedglass · 30/08/2018 07:43

Spoke to a mum who said her friend was looking into touch typing tuition for her ds.abd so sge was thinking of doing it too.

Is this a thing now?

It has literally never occured to me that this would be neccessary at such a young age, unless their were particular circumstances.

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Rosetintedglass · 30/08/2018 07:43

Sorry should say she was thinking 9f doing it too

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Imfinehowareyou · 30/08/2018 07:48

BBC dancemat is a really fun free touch typing programme aimed at children. As to whether it is something your child needs to do, it's a useful computer skill but not necessary at this age.

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Imfinehowareyou · 30/08/2018 07:50

For some reason I thought I had read the child was 6 but you don't state an age. We introduced touch typing to year 3 back when I taught.

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cloudtree · 30/08/2018 07:51

Mine started with dancemat typing on the bbc website.

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NellyTimes · 30/08/2018 07:51

Touch typing will be considerably more useful in the long term than cursive writing.

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Nacreous · 30/08/2018 07:52

Dancemat is quite effective and definitely a useful skill but I don’t think it needs pushing pushing.

I am not a true technical touch typist, but I can touch type in my own way effectively. That brings my typing speed up to just over 60 words a minute which is enough to minute meetings etc effectively. Anything that takes them beyond two finger typing is worthwhile.

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shouldwestayorshouldwego · 30/08/2018 07:54

It will make their computer use more effective, they won't learn poorer search and peck approaches, and is the sort of skill they can work on from a young age. Consider how much you type (including on here) compared to writing and it is apparent why it is a useful skill.

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Rosetintedglass · 30/08/2018 07:56

@Imfinehowareyou yes age 6 years.
Okay I guess it is a thing then.
I learnt to touch type as part of an ICT class in secondary. I just didnt think it was something needed in primary.

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Heratnumber7 · 30/08/2018 08:00

I learned to touch type in my 20s. I wish all schools would teach it as part of IT. It's so useful, and helps with spelling too as you kind of learn to memorise letter frequent patterns such as "ough" by rote, so that you end up typing without thinking.

If you asked me where a letter on a keyboard is without a keyboard in front of me, I couldn't tell you. But blindfold me and put my hands on the keyboard and I can type any word you throw at me. Weird isn't it.

I'd suggest waiting until your child is a confident reader before starting to learn touch typing though.

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5000KallaxHoles · 30/08/2018 08:01

My 6 year old loves doing dance mat typing - wouldn't push it to anything more forced than that at the moment but she thinks its bloody hilarious.

There's reasoning behind it though - they seem to mostly use iPads for ICT at school these days and my younger child is very severely dyspraxic with a massive gap between what she can do - and what she can record, so I'm chipping away gently at the computer skills for both of them in the hope that in a few years she'll be able to produce much more of her work on computer and help reduce her difficulties that way... but big sister hogs the laptop and likes the silly DJ animals on that game and it's a useful skill to have being able to type quickly and accurately anyway so I'd rather that than them watching hours of inane squealy Americans opening little fucking Hatchimal eggs on youtube (her other activity of choice).

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Dairymilkmuncher · 30/08/2018 08:17

It's a great idea.

Usually at six and younger they are so excited to be allowed on a laptop or computer that you can get them to happily sit and work hard at educational things rather than an older kid who knows fine well it's like school work and would rather be doing anything else than sneaky spelling work.

It really does help in the brain with spelling and patterns so like any learning the younger the better and before bad typing habits start

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FruitCider · 30/08/2018 08:26

What an interesting thread! My almost 6 year old is dying to have a go on the computer but I kind of dismissed the idea as I thought you would need to be a confident reader first? What is dance mat?

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Pythonesque · 30/08/2018 08:32

Agree with dance mat - that's how my kids (now teenagers) started on typing too. Yr 2 not a bad age to start as that leaves you plenty of time for them to learn it through play without it ever being a chore. By the time you get to secondary nowadays you don't want typing skills to hold you back. Though you certainly don't want to neglect handwriting skills either!

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Pythonesque · 30/08/2018 08:33

dancemat - bbc online typing program for kids; not bad for adults either!

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tartanterror · 31/08/2018 20:38

Most people probably don’t get their young kids on touch typing other than a bit of playing on dance mat.

For those with Sen kids it’s a bit more of an essential and more thorough programs are Englishtype or subscription to TTRS

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cloudtree · 01/09/2018 08:31

Once they've done dance mat or are too "grown up" for it then EdClub is free and is excellent. DS2 has sen and is using that now so that he can use a laptop in exams.

There's no room in the curriculum for it in secondary and by that time they've learnt all the bad habits anyway. i think its an essential skill which can really help them.

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user789653241 · 01/09/2018 10:22

My ds learned to tough type doing some online thingy. Not serious though it wasn't necessary due to sn or anything.

It is handy skill to have, but not something that you should push if the child isn't interested or needed at early age.

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BakedBeans47 · 01/09/2018 10:24

I think everyone should learn to touch type. We have to use computers so much now as part of every day life and many people’s typing skills are awful. I learned to touch type in school and it’s probably the most useful skill I learned in the long run! Not sure I’d start teaching them at 6 though

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DunesOfSand · 01/09/2018 10:27

Dance mat and big brown bear are used from Y3 at my kids school.

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5000KallaxHoles · 01/09/2018 12:06

I think everyone should be taught to at least type confidently and at a decent speed (I don't touch type "properly" in terms of using the correct keys for the correct letters) and I also think that kids need to be taught to think of appropriate search terms and looking at what sites are thrown up in an internet search critically much more as well.

Anyone else get hideously frustrated when buying or ordering something and the staff member is painstakingly two-finger hunt and peck typing their way through the order details at a glacial speed?!