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Expert Q&A

Typing Skills for Students Who Struggle with Writing

What would you do with a child who really struggles to get words down on a page?

Unfortunately, we still need to teach them how to type. Typing is still an essential component of that student’s life, and spending 15 minutes a day, five days a week for about four to six months is a really, really important skill for them to learn. Once they can type at about 35 words per minute, that’s enough speed so that they don’t have to look for the keys on the board anymore; they’re touch typing. And that allows them to take advantage of word prediction, and to use their word processor as their main form of getting their ideas down in writing. Or they’re using voice recognition just to dictate very small phrases, and then going back and linking those phrases up.

View the full Q&A with Dr. Todd Cunningham >