Trinity Keyboarding

I think that it should begin about 3rd grade. Research states that 8 years old is a good age because students have developed the coordination and manual dexterity to

keyboard efficiently.

I agree with the physical development statements, but more importantly they have a reason to communicate in a written format.  It doesn’t make sense for kids to learn how to keyboard if they don’t have much to say.

So here’s what I believe: We should expose students to the keyboard as much as possible! Every student starting in Kindergarten should be exposed to a keyboard as often as possible. 15 minutes three times a week would be preferred.

In 1st grade the focus would be to have student use two hands on the keyboard. By 3rd grade typing should be part of the writing curriculum. The time spent on cursive writing should be replaces with keyboard time (cursive writing is

an art form and should be part of art…..my opinion and my opinion only!). By 5th grade students should be required to turn in at least one type written assignment a week and spend no less then 120 minutes a week exposed to a computer keyboard.

*On-site electronic resources (encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas)

"Most research supports starting students on formal keyboarding around grade 4," says Theresa Tovey, occupational therapist in Region #4 (Chester, Deep River, and Essex) in Connecticut. "All kids do not have the eye-hand motor coordination to learn keyboarding skills earlier than that."

"That isn't to say that nothing can be done with keyboarding before grade 4," Tovey continues. "It's good for students to get familiar with the keyboard in the earlier grades. We encourage students to pretend there's a line down the middle of the keyboard and to keep the right hand to the right of the line and the left hand to the left. We also encourage them to type with more than one finger because they may tend to use just the index finger. For later instruction, it's good for students to develop the habit of using more than one finger early on."

much formal keyboarding instruction in schools begins at third and fourth grade or later