Latest Touch Typing News

Pat Payne, YRD Chair, first realised the benefit of typing for a dyslexic when her son was able to use a laptop while sitting his GCSE exams in 1993. He was one of the first dyslexics in the county to do so; he learned to use the keyboard and was able to ‘hunt and peck’ quite quickly. However, even +25 years on, dyslexic children are still unlikely to learn to type in school, despite typing being taught in countries like

Research identifies new brain activity for unconscious skills and split second decision making. Many daily skills & activities are processed by the unconscious part of your brain – things that just happen on ‘autopilot’. Riding a bike, running, swimming and driving are common activities that become automatic.  These unconscious skills use a different and very powerful part of the brain: the cerebellum (Latin for “little brain”). You may have heard the term “muscle memory”, but it isn’t only about your

Over 80,000 of the young people collecting GCSE results will be dyslexic. If the trend of recent years continues, their chance of getting a good pass in their English and maths will be just half of that of their peers. Despite being just as able as their classmates, they are twice as likely to fail to get those critical grades. Dyslexic young people are so much less likely to leap this important hurdle in accessing further education and a good

SEN Magazine’s article on literacy makes rather bleak reading: 25% of all children leave Primary school with below age-expected skill levels. And for SEN pupils, this is a staggering 62%. Teaching typing by touch is a simple option and will boost literacy levels – improving spelling and reading and changing written work completely. Typing by touch uses the powerful unconscious physical skill centre or muscle memory. Don’t let your child be one of these statistics, it’s easy to help, Englishtype

HuffPost UK has suggestions about helping transition to secondary school for children with Special Needs. While it’s nice to see they think touch typing will have already been taught – it’s certainly not a reality! Help your child and get them typing properly. Remember, the real benefit of the skill comes from the fact that it gets the brain working differently from writing with a pen. Great for SEN / Neuro-diverse brains! (HuffPost UK) “Plan your approach” (to the Senior

A project to save time in the NHS has identifed touch typing for doctors as one of a top ten priorities in increasing efficiency. Don’t waste more than half the time you or your child spends at the computer, invest just a few short weeks and learn a skill for life. And save hundreds of thousands of hours at a keyboard over a lifetime in education or at work. www.pulsetoday.co.uk/…/nhs-englands-flagsh…/20037519.article

SEN magazine has an article about helping pupils with Dyspraxia with the transition to secondary school, highlighting the importance of typing and ideally learning in primary Teaching typing and handwriting to pupils in years 5 and 6 who continue to demonstrate poor handwriting (quality and quantity) and providing opportunities for pupils to type (rather than handwrite) some of their work will help maintain their self-esteem and confidence in learning whilst developing a useful life skill. Teaching typing at primary school

A great success story about learning to type from a girl with Dyspraxia and her Mum; Lucy achieved 20 wpm through her Easter holidays working very intensively, more practice in the summer hols got her to +30wpm and she now types at over 40wpm. Well done Lucy, Englishtype is proud of you! Mum says “I think the key to our success was a very concerted effort at the beginning (almost treating it like a holiday course you might attend at

It’s great to see touch typing getting some recognition as a skill, there’s an article in today’s Daily Mail Online about how leading schools are putting it on the timetable due to parental demand. Brighton College Prep School is one of Englishtype’s client schools and Englishtype is now being rolled out into the Senior school. Lots of Brighton College pupils are using Englishtype at school and at home. If you are a parent and your child isn’t learning to type,

A great success story about learning to type from a girl with Dyspraxia and her Mum; Lucy achieved 20 wpm through her Easter holidays working very intensively, more practice in the summer hols got her to +30wpm and she now types at over 40wpm. Well done Lucy, Englishtype is proud of you! Mum says “I think the key to our success was a very concerted effort at the beginning (almost treating it like a holiday course you might attend at

Google showed me an article today that is about 3D and coding. It seems strange to me that coding is promoted as part of the UK curriculum, and yet touch typing which is an essential skill for efficient work is still being ignored. Most other countries teach touch typing, recognising it is a skill that can be easily taught. “Disassociation from one’s hands” is not something UK pupils understand! “The dissociation from one’s hands and input devices is easier for

A lovely note from a Mum and a great job by the kids colouring stickers for a home made customised keyboard… “I spoke to you earlier in the week and I’m delighted to report that both kids LOVE Qwerty and find his Outfits very motivating! I attach a picture of our keyboard customisation. The kids coloured in stickers from Rymans and helped to stick them on. We have used tiny dots of blu tac on the home keys. Just wish

“What is known… Typing skills are important for the quality of the typewritten text output. In touch‐typing with automaticity of transcription, workting‐memory load is decreased. What this paper adds… This study investigated the effect of a touch‐typing course on spelling and narrative writing. We used a design with an experimental (with typing‐course) and a control group (no course) The experimental group showed more improvement in typing, spelling and narrative writing. Implications for parents & teachers… It is important for the