Try Englishtype - from the designer of Dance Mat Typing

BBC Dance Mat Typing is a fun starting point for children learning to type. However, if you’re serious about building real touch typing skills, you need something more. Englishtype is designed by the same educational expert behind Dance Mat Typing. It offers everything Dance Mat lacks and more.

More Levels & Activities: Over 200 activities! Including, games, typing practice and targeted challenges. To improve speed and accuracy.
Supports Literacy: Includes spelling and literacy-focused activities. Helping school skills alongside typing.
Advanced Learning Tools: Features a unique 8-colour coding system. For better engagement and learning.
Designed for Long-Term Use: Goes beyond Dance Mat’s fun introduction. Delivering a full-scale typing program for serious skill building.

Available for Windows, Apple and Google Chrome

BBC Touch Typing - ready to step up your skills?

From BBC DanceMat’s Designer

Are you serious about teaching touch typing to kids? Then, it’s time to switch BBC Dance Mat Typing to Englishtype. Dance Mat is a fun introduction to typing, but if you understand the real benefits of unconscious touch typing, you’ll know that Dance Mat Typing can only take children so far. It’s simply too small to cover the full scope. Now try Englishtype, it’s 200 times the size and teaches touch typing with a big focus on literacy.

Why EnglishType Is the Best Next Step

EnglishType helps learners keep going after Dance Mat Typing. It gives them fun games, short tasks and clear typing tests. These help build strong habits over time. Learners can practise using both hands. They can also work on speed and control at their own pace.

EnglishType gives more structure than a simple typing game. It also gives more practice than many basic typing classes. It is easy to use at home or in school. There are online versions for children and adults, so each learner can choose the right level.

How EnglishType and Dance Mat Typing Are Connected

The BBC wanted to create a typing game for children. Before they began, they looked at many typing tools. EnglishType stood out as one of the best choices.

That is why the BBC asked Jo from EnglishType to help with the project. Jo is an Educational Psychologist and typing expert. She helped shape the way the lessons worked.

The design team made the graphics and recorded the voices. Jo planned the lessons, the teaching steps and the colour-coded keys.

The Unique Englishtype Advantage

Englishtype and BBC Dance Mat Typing both use a system of eight colours. Each colour shows children which finger to use for each key. This makes the keys easier to remember. It also makes practice more fun.

You can think of Englishtype as the big brother of Dance Mat Typing. It builds on the basic skills children have learned. It then helps them move on to harder lessons and activities.

Celebrating and Continuing the Success

BBC Dance Mat Typing was a huge success. It even won a BAFTA in the Games category in 2004. More than 20 years later, many schools still use it as a free online typing tool.

Englishtype is a natural next step for children who are ready to move on. It offers more lessons, games and activities. It also has a stronger focus on reading and spelling. These tools help children improve their typing speed, accuracy and confidence.

BBC Typing vs Englishtype

A Comparison

Like many online programs, Mat Typing had to be small and simple so it could run on lots of types of devices.

BBC Mat Typing has ONLY 240 lines of typing in TOTAL: this gives a taste of touch typing. It’s not possible to build the unconscious automatic skill (or muscle memory) with only this much practice. On average, it takes 20-25 hours of practice to build both accuracy & speed to unconscious function. You would need to repeat it an awful lot of times to achieve this!

Comprehensive Typing Lessons

Englishtype has more typing in one LEVEL alone, with main lessons, 12 stages, games, speed booster & spelling lessons. Progress is saved and there are targeted activities to build & test the skill acquisition as you move through the program. Helping you to improve your typing, hand position and words per minute. See how Dance Mat and Englishtype compare…

BBC Mat Typing