Illustration of a laptop on a video call with a teacher and six students

BY COURTNEY WALKER, MOT, OTR

With an increase in distance or virtual learning being the norm lately, students have

become more and more reliant on technology to access their education. While it is wonderful that we live in a time that allows for us to exclusively utilize this approach to learning, several problems have become evident that can impede a child’s ability to fully participate in their educational experience. Fluid typing skills and precise computer mouse usage are two areas that are highly beneficial to proficiently access all aspects of virtual learning. Although this is an additional task on top of daily school work to address, with consistent practice, even just a few minutes a day, your child can learn these practical skills that will be useful throughout their life.

Being an occupational therapist, one of the most important foundational skills I encourage is for clients have a stable base of support in order to facilitate hand usage. In other words, promoting core strength, good posture, and overall body mechanics helps to facilitate the fine motor skills necessary for writing or typing. When seated, hips, knees, and ankles should be at 90 degrees flexion, shoulders back with arms relaxed along the side while sitting upright, hands and wrists elevated and straight, and the screen at eye level. It is also important to encourage healthy technology habits by taking occasional breaks from viewing the screen and moving around a bit.

As with most skills, practice is the best way to improve accuracy, speed, and fluidity. There are a wide variety of options to obtain this instruction, whether that be through specific curriculums or free websites. Despite the method, the general format to learn typing involves proper hand placement on the keyboard, drills for appropriate finger-to-key use with either one hand at a time or both hands together, and reviewing the exercises through games. After all, a child’s primary occupation is to play! The lessons tend to be cumulative, often with a focus on either individual or a few specific keys before incorporating the new keys with previously learned ones to form a variety of combinations and words. It won’t happen overnight, but before you know it your child will be typing full sentences! But remember, accuracy is a more crucial skill than speed at the beginning. Developing the muscle memory with correct finger-to- key movement patterns takes practice and may be performed at a slow pace initially. But when paired with continued repetition, accurate key strokes will increase in speed over time.

In addition to learning typing skills, practicing with the computer mouse is an effective way to improve motor control and accuracy. For individuals in the early learning stages of typing, the computer mouse can provide an alternative option for making selections and completing online tasks. Below are many interactive options available online free of charge as well as variety of opportunities to practice these new skills, all with progressively more challenging tasks to accomplish.

Free Online Typing Websites:

- Typing Club – www.typingclub.com

- Typing Lessons and Games – www.freetypinggame.net

- Kidz Type – www.kidztype.com

Computer Mouse Websites:

- Basic Practice – https://www.abcmouse.com/email/mouse-and-pointer

- Drawing Melody – http://www.manxue-wang.com/

- Making Artwork – http://bomomo.com/

- Jigsaw Puzzles – https://www.jigsawplanet.com/

- Variety of Games – https://www.digipuzzle.net/

Sources:

https://www.readandspell.com/us/teaching-kids-to-type

https://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/four-online-sites-to-teach-mouse-skills/