18 reasons your child should learn to touch-type

Just 20 minutes' practice a day could be enough to make your child a fluent touch-typist in as little as 10 weeks. We explain why confident, fast typing skills are an essential skill for all primary-school children.
Touch-typing is one of those skills that, along with shorthand, seemed to go out of fashion as women began to embrace careers beyond the secretarial. But while you might have a mental image of rows of well-groomed young ladies sitting behind their manual typewriters, touch-typing is far from an outdated practice. In fact, typing could be one of the most valuable skills your primary school child will ever learn.
So why is touch-typing such a useful skill for kids to master? We take a look at some of the reasons every child should learn the art of keyboarding; if you're keep to get started we also have reviews of online typing tutors and touch-typing software.
So why is touch-typing such a useful skill for kids to master? We take a look at some of the reasons every child should learn the art of keyboarding; if you're keep to get started we also have reviews of online typing tutors and touch-typing software.


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1. Touch-typing helps children work faster
Touch-typing means being able to type at speed and with accuracy, without needing to look down at your hands on the keyboard, and it’s this that makes touch-typists so speedy.‘If you keep switching between looking at the keyboard and the screen, you’re wasting half your time because your brain is trying to focus on two different things at once,’ explains Sue Westwood from touch-typing learning program Englishtype. ‘Kids who can touch-type produce twice the amount of work as those who “hunt and peck” at the keyboard.’
2. Typing becomes more accurate
As well as being fast, touch-typing is accurate. ‘We aim for children to type at 30 words per minute (wpm) with over 90 per cent accuracy,’ Sue says. ‘Children who are fast typists but don’t touch-type still waste time because they have to stop and read what’s on the screen, and go back to make corrections.’3. Touch-typing gives kids an advantage over their peers
John Sutherland, professor of English literature at University College, says, ‘You want to put wings on the heels of your children? Teach them to touch-type. They’ll bless you for it.’Sue agrees. ‘A child who can’t touch-type will produce work at half the speed of a child who can,’ she says. ‘Why wouldn’t you want to give your child that advantage?’
4. Primary age is the best time to learn to type
Touch-typing may seem a rather grown-up skill, but primary school kids are perfectly placed to learn. ‘Age seven or thereabouts is ideal, because their hands are the right size, they have the concentration span, and because they love being on the computer, they’re motivated to learn,’ Sue explains.‘Touch-typing can be learnt later on, either at secondary school or in adulthood, but the later you leave it, the more bad habits you’ll have to unlearn. That’s why earlier is better.’
5. It sets them up for secondary school and beyond
With pupils still having to handwrite the majority of their work at primary school, and complete exams on paper, parents often question the necessity of learning to touch-type. ‘In secondary schools, most coursework is expected to be typed, and being able to touch-type by the time you’re at university and writing essays of thousands of words could save you 350 hours over the course of your degree,’ Sue says. ‘Children who learn in primary school will reap the benefits in secondary and beyond.’6. It’ll give them advantages in the future
Parents sometimes take the attitude that, ‘I can’t touch-type and I manage just fine, so why should my child learn?’ But Sue says that while you may think you’re managing well as a one- or two-finger typist, that’s not the case.‘If you put yourself next to a touch-typist, you’ll be about half the speed,’ she explains. ‘Children who most need to touch-type are those who want to go further in education, but so many professions use computers, even if it’s just for customer records, and yet you’ll stand in the garage, optician or carpet shop and watch staff typing with one finger.’