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Any software / hardware recommendations for this? I introduced my 5.5 year old to Tux Typing with a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard 4000. The games were b

Any software / hardware recommendations for this? I introduced my 5.5 year old to Tux Typing with a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard 4000. The games were borderline too fast and frustrating.

yourapostasy 9y ago
Plain old browser free of any cookies (I use either a dedicated account, or switch to a child's Firefox container tab), and a free account on typing.com works. The free account has advertisements. Hence the generic blank browser so ads don't reflect your own browsing history, and will start to reflect the child's instead. I prefer the advertisements, because it trains the children to deal with mild distractions while typing, as they will grow up in a world where they will have an advantage if they acquire the skill to type under heavy distraction. But YMMV depending upon the child's level of focus; spring for the paid account if the advertisements are too distracting. "Too" in this context for me means the child stops the lesson altogether to watch the ads. I start out by setting expectations that I don't care about speed, I only care about accuracy and correct finger placement, and the speed will come later with more time and practice. Inevitably, they want to see you typing as fast as you can and will want to emulate that, so I discourage any emphasis upon speed while learning. The lessons have an accuracy ranking represented as 1-3 stars, and the rule I enforce is they must achieve all three stars (95% accuracy) before advancing to the next lesson. Finger placement on the keys is difficult for children this young when starting, but a 5 yo will generally catch on reasonably well after about 5-10 lessons. Usually they lack the fine motor control to prevent stray key strikes when that young, so when first starting out, I limit the lessons to 4 attempts at a single lesson to reach 3 stars, then praise them for sticking with it even if they don't get it, and move on to another activity. After passing the second lesson, I show them how to restart a lesson so if they feel like they are making too many mistakes they can try again without having to go through the system's feedback and feeling dejected by it. I always effusively praise steady persistence performed without undue emotional drama, and if that day's lesson proves too tumultuous, we gently disengage. Depending upon the individual child, you will have to sit with them to enforce correct finger placement anywhere from 3-10 lessons. There is an enormous temptation at first when there are only a couple keys to learn for a child to use their index finger in a pointing fashion like they are used to their entire lives up to this juncture, instead of properly splaying their fingers out on the keyboard, which is a highly unaccustomed position for them. The dots on most computer keyboard home rows definitely helps center them. You feel your way through with each individual child, but generally you can ramp up to four lessons per day at 6 yo, and by then it goes fairly quickly. This is already a wall of text, so I omitted how I calibrate ramping up and other starting out guidelines I created as I went along, feel free to respond here if you want more details, but this should get you started.

Any software / hardware recommendations for this? I introduced my 5.5 year old to Tux Typing with a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard 4000. The games were borderline too fast and frustrating.

yourapostasy 9y ago

Plain old browser free of any cookies (I use either a dedicated account, or switch to a child's Firefox container tab), and a free account on typing.com works. The free account has advertisements. Hence the generic blank browser so ads don't reflect your own browsing history, and will start to reflect the child's instead. I prefer the advertisements, because it trains the children to deal with mild distractions while typing, as they will grow up in a world where they will have an advantage if they acquire the skill to type under heavy distraction. But YMMV depending upon the child's level of focus; spring for the paid account if the advertisements are too distracting. "Too" in this context for me means the child stops the lesson altogether to watch the ads. I start out by setting expectations that I don't care about speed, I only care about accuracy and correct finger placement, and the speed will come later with more time and practice. Inevitably, they want to see you typing as fast as you can and will want to emulate that, so I discourage any emphasis upon speed while learning. The lessons have an accuracy ranking represented as 1-3 stars, and the rule I enforce is they must achieve all three stars (95% accuracy) before advancing to the next lesson. Finger placement on the keys is difficult for children this young when starting, but a 5 yo will generally catch on reasonably well after about 5-10 lessons. Usually they lack the fine motor control to prevent stray key strikes when that young, so when first starting out, I limit the lessons to 4 attempts at a single lesson to reach 3 stars, then praise them for sticking with it even if they don't get it, and move on to another activity. After passing the second lesson, I show them how to restart a lesson so if they feel like they are making too many mistakes they can try again without having to go through the system's feedback and feeling dejected by it. I always effusively praise steady persistence performed without undue emotional drama, and if that day's lesson proves too tumultuous, we gently disengage. Depending upon the individual child, you will have to sit with them to enforce correct finger placement anywhere from 3-10 lessons. There is an enormous temptation at first when there are only a couple keys to learn for a child to use their index finger in a pointing fashion like they are used to their entire lives up to this juncture, instead of properly splaying their fingers out on the keyboard, which is a highly unaccustomed position for them. The dots on most computer keyboard home rows definitely helps center them. You feel your way through with each individual child, but generally you can ramp up to four lessons per day at 6 yo, and by then it goes fairly quickly. This is already a wall of text, so I omitted how I calibrate ramping up and other starting out guidelines I created as I went along, feel free to respond here if you want more details, but this should get you started.