A Slightly Embarrassing Confession…

My children aren't very good at touch typing… yet.

A little ironic, considering I run a touch typing business!

This summer, they've both signed up for a two-week Typeify Summer Course and chosen which weeks they'd like to do.

So why haven't they already mastered this skill?

My guinea pigs

Well, the answer goes back three years, when I first launched Typeify.

My son was 9 then and my daughter just 7. They became my very first students, my guinea pigs, while I was developing and refining the course.

My son completed the course and learnt all the keys. My daughter, however, was simply a bit too young. She learnt the Home Row and about half of the Top Row before deciding she'd had enough. At seven years old, that was completely understandable.

Fast forward three years and she's still reminding me of that fact!

She absolutely loves writing stories on the computer. Every so often I'll ask, "Are you using the correct fingers? Are you looking at the screen instead of the keyboard?"

Her reply is always the same:

"Mum… I can't! I only learnt the Home Row and half of the Top Row!"

And she's absolutely right.

She never finished learning the keyboard properly, so, like so many children, she's developed the habit of looking down, hunting for keys and using whichever fingers happen to get there first.

My son is in a slightly different position. He knows where every key is, but, like many children, he simply hasn't used the skill enough since he learnt it. Knowing where the keys are is one thing, but touch typing only becomes automatic through practice. A refresher is exactly what he needs to rebuild that muscle memory.

Putting it right

It's been a useful reminder for me too. Even though I teach touch typing every day, life gets busy, and like lots of parents, I kept thinking, "We'll get round to that." Before I knew it, my daughter was happily writing stories using inefficient habits, and my son hadn't 'locked in' his touch typing technique enough for it to become automatic. So this summer, we're putting that right.

It just goes to show that even the children of someone who teaches touch typing can end up needing a refresher. Life gets busy, and sometimes the most obvious jobs are the ones that slip down the list.

If your child could use some help with touch typing this summer, whether that's starting from scratch or brushing up on skills they've let slip, you can find out more about the Typeify summer course here.