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Keyboarding games

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Keyboarding Games

Kids love typing games for kids! In fact, these are our most popular learning games on site. Learning Games for Kids presents Typing Adventure. This amazing online learning game for kids is perfect for getting the skills needed to master keyboarding. In today's technological world it's so important for every child to have typing skills. It's another thing to add to an already jam packed learning day, but learning games for kids makes it easy and fun. Your elementary student and your high school students will enjoy playing super fun games while mastering keyboarding skills!

Each game supports correct finger positioning and encourages reach and keyboard memorization. Typing games for kids are perfect for enabling students to gain speed and accuracy with cartoon characters and fun sequences. They can build finger strength and become keyboarding experts in no time thanks to our cool online typing games like QWERTY Warriors and Typing Monsters. We've even built our site to include a typing test for kids where they can take a keyboarding speed test which will check for accuracy. It's no wonder that elementary schools and middle schools are incorporating fun online keyboarding games into their regular curricula since playing games, learning songs, and watching videos online provide amazing results that teachers can feel confident about.

Though our keyboarding games are used by school districts all over the U.S., many children are using online learning at home as a their main method of education. Keyboarding skills become a necessity when learning online and using educational technology although the occasional pencil and paper printable worksheet is necessary. Yet, it's easy for students to gain finger strength, speed, and dexterity with the free typing games you'll find here. Learning Games for Kids is all about helping children reach their maximum potential online and off. But best of all, kids have loads of fun while they're doing it!

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Kids love typing games for kids! In fact, these are our most popular learning games on site. Learning Games for Kids presents Typing Adventure. This amazing online learning game for kids is perfect for getting the skills needed to master keyboarding. In today's technological world it's so important for every child to have typing skills.

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Developmental milestones for students based on their ages.

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Keyboarding skills are often considered just important (or more) than handwriting. But when are children developmentally ready?

Developmental Progression of Keyboarding Skills

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and spotted an entire family on their phone or tablet? Technology is everywhere, and there is no getting away from it. I'm sure you've read those articles about the importance of limiting technology and screen time, but what about the importance of teaching technology in a developmentally appropriate way?
When are kids ready to learn how to type? This post contains affiliate links for your convenience
This post is part of a 12-month series called Functional Skills for Kids written by pediatric OTs and PTs to post on different developmental topics that impact functional skills for kids.

This month's topic in the "Functional Skills for Kids" blog hop is Keyboarding Skills, so check out the landing page for the rest of our posts and information on all things related!

Common Core Curriculum has evolved over the years so that schools are teaching handwriting before children are developmentally ready. Are we doing the same thing with keyboarding skills?

How are Keyboarding Skills and Handwriting Alike?

Keyboarding and handwriting both provide a way for children to represent their knowledge, thoughts, and expressions.

Just like handwriting, children need to be fluent with keyboarding in order to accurately express themselves. When children do not receive formal keyboarding instruction, it takes them much longer to find the keys, complete their sentences, and include the necessary details of the assignment.

This can lead to kids taking the same "shortcuts" we frequently see when they struggle with handwriting:

Fewer details

Shorter sentences and paragraphs

Incomplete sentences

When keyboarding is fluent and automatic, it helps children to focus on the content of their writing, rather than trying to locate the proper keys (Preminger, Weiss, & Weintraub, 2004).

Keyboarding Instead of Handwriting

Many parents and educators choose to lead a child toward keyboarding if they struggle with handwriting. With the surge of technology in education, it makes sense to use keyboarding as an alternative when handwriting is too difficult. "However, research suggests that children who struggle with handwriting may also struggle with keyboarding" (Connelly, Gee, & Walsh, 2007).
But Why?
Many of the prerequisite skills for handwriting are the same for keyboarding:

Letter recognition

Fine motor skills

Isolated use of each finger

Bilateral coordination (using two hands together)

Eye-hand coordination

Visual memory and perceptual skills

Postural control

Keyboarding and handwriting are both complex skills that require practice to become fluent and automatic. Formal instruction in keyboarding can help a child to build the foundational skills need to express themselves appropriately.
But when should children really be able to type?
Developmental Progression of Keyboarding Skills

Resources:

1. Connelly, V., Gee, D., & Walsh, E. (2007). A comparison of keyboarded and handwritten compositions and the relationship with transcription speed. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 479-492.

2. Handwriting & Keyboarding: Standards for the Production & Presentation of Writing. (2014). Retrieved December 13, 2016, from https://www.hwtears.com/hwt/why-it-works/handwriting-standards/handwriting-standards

3. Honaker, D. (1999). Handwriting and Keyboarding Legibility/Speed of 5th and 8th-grade students, a pilot study. Unpublished manuscript.

4. Preminger, F., Weiss, P., & Weintraub, N. (2004). Predicting occupational performance: Handwriting versus keyboarding. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58, 193-201.

This post is part of the Functional Skills for Kids series. Check out all of the bloggers who are participating and learn more about the series by clicking on the link above.
To read all of Miss Jaime, O.T.'s posts in this series, check out my Functional Skills for Kids landing page.
For more information on the components and considerations related to Keyboarding Skills and Typing, stop by and see what the other Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists on the Functional Skills for Kids team have to say:

Fine Motor Skills and Typing | Therapy Fun Zone

How to Implement a Keyboarding Club | Sugar Aunts

Activities to Help Children Learn to Type | Growing Hands-On Kids

Assistive Technology for Kids Who Struggle With Handwriting | The Inspired Treehouse

| Your Therapy Source Work Station, Positioning, and Keyboarding Skills

Visual Perceptual Considerations When Typing | Your Kids OT

HOLIDAY POSTS:

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Keyboarding Skills - Ages and Stages of Learning to Type

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Keyboarding skills are often considered just important (or more) than handwriting. But when are children developmentally ready? Have you ever gone to a restaurant and spotted an entire family on their phone or tablet? Technology is everywhere, and there is no getting away from it.

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A home-row game for kids to practice the all-important home row keys

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While there is a plethora of great keyboarding software out there to buy, there are times when you'd just like to go online for some quick and easy practice. Below are some great sites that will get your fingers flying across the home-row in no time.

Dance Mat Typing, from the BBC, is a great program for beginning typers. There are different levels that focus on specific keys and after each successful level, students are rewarded with a song and dance.

Quick, basic, and easy to use. Keybr tracks your speed, errors, and keys that you are struggling with. Another nice feature about Keybr is that you can type the content from any website by simply entering the url of that site.

PowerTyping is a free online typing tutor for Qwerty - US standard 101 keyboard and Dvorak keyboard. There are typing games, tests, stories, and more!

E-Learning for Kids has a space theme that makes it fun for kids to practice their keyboarding skills. Games can be unlocked as typists move on to higher levels.

Great graphics, a map, killer sharks attacking you. What's not to like about Typershark? You can play it free online, or download a free version to unlock all of the levels. The free deluxe version allows you to play 60 minutes of game time. After that, you can either go back to the free online version, or pay $6.99usd for complete ownership of the full version.

12 different keyboarding games can be found at Learning Games for Kids that are all high-interest and get kids motivated about becoming better typists. My personal favorite is Typing Tide-pool, where you race your dolphin against others.

Fun to Type is a game-based keyboarding site that is high interest and allows students to practice individual letters. While not a strong tutorial program, it would be a fun place to stop by for a break.

Sense-Lang has a nice tutorial interface with an interactive keyboard that highlights the keys you missed. WPM and accuracy are calculated as you type. There are also some fun and entertaining games.

Typing Master is a site to go to for 3 great games, including, my favorite, KeyMan Typing. There is also a great 1-3 minute typing test that I give to my students throughout the year for a quick analysis of their current keyboarding skills.

FreeTypingGame.net has a nice selection of about 10 games, over 40 lessons, and several different types of tests to choose from.

Typing Chef is a fun game from Sense-Lang where students type what they see in the kitchen. You start out as a dish washer, then move up to vegetable chopper, on your way to head chef. Great Italian restaurant music plays while you type and the chef gives a not so subtle, "Ahem" when you make a mistake.

While not a full-fledged typing game per se (you only practice 7 keys), there is no doubt that UpBeat is the favorite typing game of many students. It's a bit like guitar hero in that you chose a song and then type the letters at the appropriate time.

Here's a nice how-to from Kent University recommended by EdTechIdeas reader, Elliot. The site is broken up into beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, and has outside links to speed tests and keyboarding games.

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While there is a plethora of great keyboarding software out there to buy, there are times when you'd just like to go online for some quick and easy practice. Below are some great sites that will get your fingers flying across the home-row in no time.

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Has speed tests, lessons, and games.

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Free typing tutor online with free typing lessons.

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Free typing tutor online with typing lessons for Qwerty, Simplified Dvorak, and Programmer Dvorak keyboards. In typing lessons user can set goal and track progress. In typing practice one uses own text. Typing games are aimed at improving typing speed and accuracy.

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A keyboarding skills course

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Good selection of typing-based games.

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Typing Games Zone - Boost Your Typing Skills

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Enhance Your Typing Speed with Our Top-Rated Keyboarding Games

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Has tutorials and typing tests. Interface highlights the keys students miss to help.

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Typing Tutorials - Learn & Practice Touch Typing for Free

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Tired to repeat the same keyboarding tutorials? Practice the lessons over Sense-Lang. Have fun!

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Better for older students, allows you to add the content of any website by just putting in the URL.

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Teaching the world to type at the speed of thought! Typing lessons that work.

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Great for beginners and younger children. Cannot save progress or get WPM for students.

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Dance Mat Typing for 7 - 11 year olds - BBC Bitesize

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Learn how to touch type with the BBC Dance Mat Typing game. It's a fun introduction to touch typing game for kids and covers levels 1, 2, 3, 4.

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Free - can set up classes, track student progress, test wpm. Has games but they can be enabled or blocked. Great resource for teachers!

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Free trial, lessons, can track progress.

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Fun online touch typing course for children. You´re only one click away from participating in a pirate typing adventure!