Turbo Typing

We have developed Turbo Typing, an online multi-week typing course for children and young people that measures detailed aspects of typing and its sub-skills (e.g. keyboard familiarity, overlapping key presses). We will invite Primary and potentially Secondary Schools in Bradford to participate in the research, allowing pupils to learn to ‘touch type’ for free (typing using muscle memory, without looking down at the keyboard). We will analyse how typing skill and its sub-skills develop and in which order they do so. We will also investigate the relationship between typing skill development and educational attainment, cognitive development, and mental and physical health.

If typing is automatic, pupils are able to focus more on the content of their words rather than on searching for keys and planning individual movements, which may increase the quantity and quality of their typed work. Future research may lead to investigations of whether touch typing should be on the national curriculum.