Friday, November 24, 2006

Progress: Multi sensory keyboarding (typing)

The sun is rising … this week my child has started a multi sensory keyboarding (touch typing) course.
Whatever genius came up with multi sensory typing, fair play to them. It’s a system of teaching touch typing that takes into consideration children’s different learning styles.
They use great aides like bits of sandpaper on the keys to help children locate the home keys or if a child inverts their d’s and b’s — a handy dandy rough square can help.
Also, they teach the alphabet in sequence rather than the old fashioned (asdf jkl; route). So far my son is responding very well and making amazing progress at typing. We began with the BBC online typing tutor for kids, (www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing) but I found it much more constructive to attend an organised lesson once a week.
He’s required to practice 20 mins each night and the big bonus is he’s allowed to chew gum during the class which is taught one-on-one. It’s a pretty costly venture (over 300 dollars for the six classes) but well worth it, because it’s individualised and the child’s progress is much quicker.
The teacher explained that there is research that shows chewing can stimulate the brain. I bought some healthy chewing gum called Xylichew to avoid wrecking the teeth, while stimulating the brain!
I heartily recommend you start your child keyboarding as soon as possible: it helps their confidence and you may find that it’s a much more natural process for them than writing actually is.

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