Benefits of touch typing for a child with dyslexia

Touch typing is a technique that creates a structure where you have to place different fingers on specific areas on your keyboard. You are using all your 10 fingers, and each one is in charge of a section or a column on the keyboard and it all starts with the home row.

Keyboard with speedskin covers

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling. It’s a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing and has nothing to do with intelligence. Dyslexia affects up to 10% of the population and may impact an individual’s ability to split words into their component sounds, or phonemes.

Significantly, individuals with dyslexia are perfectly capable of comprehending complicated ideas and should not be limited in their potential because of a misunderstanding of their abilities. Sometimes all a person needs is a little more time to process information, or a new approach to processing information, such as having to listen to an ebook rather than reading.

For many children and adults, developing good literacy skills involves overcoming the obstacles offered by specific learning impairments such as dyslexia. Dyslexia affects reading, writing, and spelling ability, but it can also lead to low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in the classroom.

Mnemonic devices help in the learning of challenging words’ spelling. Reading requires reduced cognitive work when high-frequency language is memorised.

Also, dyslexics who have received touch typing education can reinforce phonics knowledge, employ muscle memory to remember word spellings, and facilitate the translation of concepts into written language.

This makes the process of writing less difficult and makes writing more seamless and effective.

-Typing vs writing contrast, MRI images Higashiyama et al, 2015, Japan, Cognitive NeuroScience PLOS

Why learning how to touch type is suitable for a child with dyslexia:

Ideas flow smoothly from the fingertips and onto the screen while touch typing. There isn’t any distraction generated by letter formation. Spelling errors may be easily made and corrected without the discomfort of erasure marks or hasty crossing out. Many children who have severe learning disabilities struggle with English spelling at first because of its extremely irregular nature and the number of sound mappings that may be applied to the same letter and letter combinations.

Typing classes also expose students to numerous samples of written language, allowing them to become more comfortable with these words. It becomes simpler to spell and sight-read words after repeated exposure.

Children who learn to touch type via the type wiz programme have their phonics skills enhanced while simultaneously learning how to navigate a keyboard. This is due to the fact that letters and words are read aloud, presented on the screen, and typed by the pupil.

Producing work on a computer also frees the writer from attempting to process thoughts in a linear fashion. Dyslexic individuals in particular benefit from being able to capture thoughts and then structure them later on. It can even improve physical dexterity and actually help to handwrite.

Benefits of touch typing for someone who is dyslexic

Touch typing provides phonics training helpful to dyslexic children

Typing assists dyslexic children in breaking down words into smaller sounds. This can be really beneficial for reading and spelling. Touch typing allows a dyslexic child to develop sound-letter correlation. This teaches a child which letters create which sounds. Touch typing also eliminates the child’s need to make letters. This allows a child to concentrate more effectively on the sounds and the characters that correspond to them.

Improved productivity

Concentration improves and output increases. They will be able to ‘write’ faster, sometimes up to five times their normal writing speed. This will save them time and make learning so much easier and enjoyable

Less stressful in exams

It means that in class or in exams, children with dyslexia can get their thoughts down on paper more easily because they don’t have to worry about how to form a word on paper. They don’t have to hold a pen in the right way to make a mark and they don’t have to make the letters and words look neat or spaced out.

Touch typing employs multi-sensory learning and develops muscle memory.

Touch typing is multi-sensory as it links sight and hearing to touch. The tactile element of pressing the keys helps with remembering the sounds that make up tricky words. Touch typing also develops muscle memory which is very useful when learning letter patterns and spelling.

Typing at the speed of thought

Touch typing helps a child to think freely and type at the speed of thought as here is no distraction in having to look down at the keyboard to hunt and peck for the correct key. Making familiar patterns with the fingers starts to become automatic so that they begin to spell sight words and common words just by remembering the movement of their fingers on the keyboard.

Messy handwriting will be eliminated

Using a computer, individuals with dyslexia can type freely, without worrying about messy handwriting or errors. If they have learnt to touch-type properly, they will be typing accurately, barely having to hit the backspace key to correct their work. Another huge bonus, is when they are trying to stay focused on their thoughts.

Increased confidence

There are so many reasons why touch typing is the right choice for children with dyslexia. It helps them to transform their thoughts and ideas freely into words, giving them the confidence and ability to communicate effectively.

Why not get your child to try out our free trial assessment touch typing course where you’ll gain valuable insights into your child’s current typing accuracy and word per min speed.

There is no obligation to continue on and you will receive a report which will outline what your child’s typing speed will be in their first six months of attending a Searsol typing centre.

Click here https://searsol.com/find-centers/?search

What makes a successful typist

Typing is something that is becoming more and more prominent nowadays and remains a foundational life skill so getting your child to learn this skill properly is extremely necessary and will be of benefit to them for the entirety of their life. It can not only help them with their school work but can also set them up with an advantage in later life when it comes to exploring job opportunities. Many jobs in the modern world of work now require quick typing skills, but with advances in technology that’s set to become even more important.

The things which make a successful typist are:

Repetition and routine, posture, home keys, covering keyboard with skin

The first key to learning to type is learning the correct hand position. Starting with your pinky on the A key, your left-hand fingers rest on the A, S, D, and F keys. The right-hand pinky goes on the; key, and fingers rest on the J, K, L, and; keys. These keys are the home row keys. Your thumbs should either be in the air or lightly touch the spacebar key. Once you have the hand positions down, you can practice touch typing – typing without looking at the keyboard. By doing so, your muscles will memorise the movements and even key patterns.

For example, when you type frequently used combinations such as “the”, your motor system will pick up on this. With muscle memory, you can type at a much faster speed. In addition, when you type in looking at the screen, you are able to catch errors faster. This frees up cognitive attention and processing power for the content of the task, so writers can focus on the work they are producing vs. the mechanics of recording it in electronic format.

You probably know roughly where the keys are located on the keyboard, but the goal of improving your typing skills is to do it without looking at the keys. Set yourself up for success by putting your body in the proper position for comfort and avoiding injury.

Follow these seven steps to improve your typing posture and positioning:

Sit up straight in a chair with the keyboard or laptop at a comfortable height on the table or desk.
Put your feet flat on the floor.
Place the screen so it’s 15 to 25 inches from your eyes, and in a position where you are looking down slightly.
Keep your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle and try to expose your shoulders, arms, wrists and elbows to as little strain as possible. You want to avoid developing any habits that would cause repetitive stress injury long-term.
Place your left and right pointer fingers on the F and the J keys. Many keyboards have a little raised tab on those letters so you can orient your fingers without looking. Let the rest of your fingers on each hand fall on the remaining keys in the home row (D, S, and A for the left hand; K, L, and the “;” symbol for the right hand). Both thumbs rest on the space bar.
With your fingers positioned on the home row, you’ll train your hands to reach all the other keys without having to look. This is called “touch typing.” Essentially, each finger is responsible for the keys just above and below the home row key it sits on. Try to imagine vertical dividers around each finger. The right pinky is responsible for the return, shift, and delete keys, and the left pinky is for the shift, caps lock, and tab keys. It may feel awkward at first since our pinky fingers aren’t always strong, but with practice, it will feel more natural.

It is recommended to use a cover to cover the keys to build up a repetitive routine and to boost your confidence when touch typing

Typing keyboard — How long does it take to learn how to touch type?

Key ingredients needed to be a successful touch typist – Motivation and concentration

People often quote Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas on how to make something a habit. In his book ‘Outliers’, he says “It takes 10,000 hours to master anything.” 10,000 hours translates into 416 days, or over a year of your life—if you practice 24 hours a day!

While that amount of time applied to typing practice might seem much too daunting, neuroscience research suggests that our brains don’t develop based on an inherent set of preprogrammed patterns. In other words, our brains are always ready for new skills. Practice leads to learning in the developing and the mature brain, and the resulting structural changes to the brain encode that learning. Once you learn the basics of finger placement and where they move on the keyboard, practicing with intention gives you lifetime mastery that will make every instance of typing easier.

The Typewiz bot helps your child to remain engaged by providing help and tips to learn how to touch type. Our bot analyses your child’s performance and encourages them to type better.

Typewiz offers a report showing how your child is progressing on the course. The report shows the following information:

Exercises Completed
Highest Score
100% Scores
Excellent Scores
Average Accuracy
Coins Earned
Average WPM
Top WPM

Information can be shown weekly, last six months, last year, or all time. Our report has both accuracy and wpm graphs. So it can easily be viewed. Reports can be printed off. Course certificates are available to print as well. These reports often motivate children as they want to beat their wpm or exercises completed from the previous day.

Touch typing program – need to be fun and gamified like Typewiz!

Typewiz

It is vital when learning how to touch type it is an engaging and interactive experience. Typewiz allows children to earn an avatar as they complete each lesson in Typewiz. Thus motivating your child to learn how to touch type. Typewiz has fun and interactive typing games for your child to enjoy. Your child can compete with other children and see who is on top of the leaderboard. A virtual coin is used for each game. This is earned by your child’s performance on the Typewiz course which prompts them to achieve high scores or improve their wpm. Thus motivating them to complete exercises fast and accurately. These incentives stimulate children to complete more exercises and improve their wpm which improves their accuracy.

Why should you learn how to touch type?

Typing is something that is becoming more and more prominent nowadays and remains a foundational life skill so getting your child to learn this skill is extremely necessary and will be of benefit to them for the entirety of their life. It can not only help them with their school work but can also set them up with an advantage in later life when it comes to exploring job opportunities. Many jobs in the modern world of work now require quick typing skills, but with advances in technology that’s set to become even more important.

Future job benefits from learning how to type

Being able to type quickly and precisely will give you a significant advantage when applying for jobs. Employers like to know that their employees can type properly because it will increase their productivity and enhance the accuracy of their work.

Every day, a large percentage of us use a computer. It’s not just secretarial and administrative workers who need keyboarding skills in the workplace anymore. Typing is as fundamental to the majority of job seekers as the use of Word or being able to navigate the internet has become a necessity for education and work purposes. This is because mostly everyone sends emails, which would include artists, journalists, teachers, and sales representatives, or completes team projects. If the record-keeping and communication aspects of your job take you several hours, you may not be as competitive as the next candidate applying for the position.

With advances in technology, the rise of robotics, and an ever-changing job market, the ability to touch type is going to become even more important for future careers. Especially currently, given the prevalence of computers in the business world, a typing speed of 50 words per minute is often regarded as the basic minimum for employees to accomplish in order to be considered efficient.

Why is learning how to touch type beneficial for children?

Touch typing aids your child to type faster as well as accurately, without having to look at the keyboard every now and then. Touch typing becomes unconscious after a while, allowing your child to be more creative. Undoubtedly a child can learn faster than an adult. As a result, the earlier they learn, the better. Attempting to learn from a young age will be extremely beneficial as you progress through school, college, and beyond.

Children who touch type can work a lot more quickly as they don’t need to look down at their fingers to look for the correct keys. They will spend less time in front of the computer screen in their free time, doing homework.

They can focus on getting their ideas down rather than spending too much time looking for the right keys to press. This makes drafting and editing easier as ideas can be deleted and changed without messy crossing out. It also assists to reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury as pressure is spread out over all their fingers and good posture is encouraged. A touch typist can type faster and produce work more quickly.

John Sutherland, professor of English literature at University College, said, ‘You want to put wings on the heels of your children? Teach them to touch-type. They’ll bless you for it.’ Learning to type from a young age can help with spelling because it uses muscle memory to learn word patterns rather than trying to remember spellings by sheer repetition. The majority of assignments, projects, and essays in a secondary school as a whole are expected to be typed. Students who begin to touch type can save a significant amount of time when preparing assignments. Furthermore, knowing how to touch-type doesn’t just affect the speed that children work at, but the quality of their work too. It allows thoughts to be captured quicker, so they’re less likely to forget a great idea as it’s an unconscious practice.

Learning to type can also benefit children with specific learning disabilities such as ADHD, dysgraphia, and dyslexia, who frequently struggle to write by hand. A learning disability, which is not a reflection of a child’s intelligence, will frequently hold a child back in the classroom if they feel nervous, embarrassed, as well as frustrated. Learning to type and then use the keyboard efficiently could be useful in situations like this.

For example, typing can help children with ADHD who might otherwise produce messy written work due to a lack of focused attention when writing by hand. Those children with dysgraphia can find it painful to hold a pencil which makes it a struggle to compose hand-written work. They will almost always produce better-written work when typing on a computer keyboard.

With dyslexia, typing can help children to break words up into component sounds. The tactile element required with pressing buttons on a keyboard can help them to manage trickier words and they will find it easier than writing by hand

Typing can help to handwrite as fingers are strengthened and have more dexterity. Typing is a life skill and may seem challenging to master but children learn at different paces.

WPM speed requirement for exams

The great thing about typing is that not only can it help you speed up your work output, but it is also so much easier to do than writing. Writing requires the pen to be held with one hand and the other hand to guide the working copy or paper, but typing involves simply placing your finger on the keyboard and pressing letters as needed.

Trying to write properly also forces your attention onto the very act of writing, with the result that all you are thinking about is the very act of forming words. Typing instead frees you up from having to worry about shaping letters and moving your hand along a page, so that you can think creatively about the content of what you are writing.

Typing has countless other advantages – it is convenient, it makes it easy to share documents, you can print up your work and it also looks so much better than written work.

As previously stated, starting to learn to type absolutely depends on muscle memory (which is used in sports) rather than memory. Typing quickly is also advantageous for examinations where children may use a laptop. Since errors can be deleted when learning to type, there is less emphasis on neatness, pencil grip, and mistakes.

In terms of typing speeds for children, at the primary school level, a typing speed of 10 wpm is generally regarded as sufficient in order for students to be able to present their work without errors. As children grow older and move to higher grades, faster speeds are recommended in order to keep up with the pace and volume of their educational work. Therefore touch typing is vital. Generally, a typing speed of around 20-25wpm is recommended after Junior Cert, rising to 30 wpm and above at Leaving Cert level. The Department. of Education recommends that your child has a typing speed of 25 words per minute if they are going to use a laptop for typing out their exams.

Students who do not learn proper touch typing and become self-taught two-finger typists will also find they fall behind as time goes on because these so-called Hunt and Peck typists are expected to achieve a maximum speed of just 30wpm under this method. When you consider that a typing speed of 45wpm and higher is required as a basic skill in many jobs and that an average professional typist types at up to 80wpm, you can see just how useful proper touch typing proves in the real world.

Given that a speaking pace of between 150-160wpm is the rate at which a person can be comfortably heard and understood by an audience and that conversational English is spoken at around 110-150wpm, typing at 80 wpm or more should enable you to catch every second word of what your teacher or lecturer says in school or college. Think how useful this would prove for your study notes!

The reality is that once your touch-type training really kicks in, the whole system clicks into place until, suddenly, you find yourself typing faster and faster, so fast you can hardly keep up! Naturally, the more time you practice touch-typing, the quicker your typing speed becomes. Eventually, you will achieve a maximum typing speed to suit you and your work so that whenever you have to type anything, you will be able to do so at a high speed.

Conclusion

Improving your typing skills is certain to make a person more confident working with computers and more likely to take full advantage of what the device can offer. Are you in search of a course or a productive app to achieve your goal of typing fast like a pro without looking, consider using https://searsol.com/

Best uses of Laptops for Exams

Using a laptop for studying and exams can have a lot of different advantages, such as faster writing; leading to more detailed and efficient note-taking, easier organisation, and easier editing. Laptops in class can also foster better collaboration with other students inside and outside the classroom. It encourages sharing information and better collaboration on group projects. A computer can also help with keeping students engaged, as it can be vital in maintaining a child’s interest in classroom topics.

Advantages to revision on a laptop are; better access and organisation of notes, easier editing, access to online study guides, and instant communication with other students if having difficulties. Students can use Google Docs or Microsoft Word docs to type up their notes and later use the search key to find specific dates and words in order to make revision easier. Both Microsoft Word and Google Docs allow students to create as many documents as they want without the fear of losing any information. All of these things can also be helpful with the student’s confidence, as it encourages them to write their own notes and to do independent research on the topics.

They can be a great help to anyone who misses school i.e. sickness. Laptops give students access to online resources such as Zoom, Microsoft teams, and other video messaging sites, that allow them to join a class from the comfort of home, or wherever they might need to be. Zoom is incredibly handy nowadays with isolation and illness and can help keep students on track with their education. It also allows for easier access to one-on-one tutoring or even group tutoring as you can join a zoom from anywhere.

Laptops also give you access to other sites, such as YouTube, where you can look up informational videos, lessons, and study guides. YouTube is great and has some very educational videos, such as the crash course videos. As it can be a worry that students will be distracted by other videos while in school, YouTube has the option to download videos so that the videos saved can be monitored and watched offline for educational purposes. This is also helpful as videos containing very important information can be saved in case the original content poster decides to delete the video from the app. YouTube can also be a great way to access documentaries for free.

Music is another good study aid, which can be accessed for free on YouTube. Studies have shown that music actives both sides of the brain at the same time and this activation can help to maximise learning and improves memory. This can differ from student to student as sensory issues can come into play, but music can be a good way to focus, block out surrounding distractions and make tasks more fun and engaging to do. Music also stimulates and engages your brain which can modify the moods of those studying and leave them in a better position to concentrate. Music also provides a rhythm to work too that keeps you alert and on track. It can also be a good way to time how long something is taken or how long until a break.

Using technology for studying can also be a big help to those who are dyslexic. Technology can make this easier on them. Notes can be more easily written, and they can be re-read using the text to speech option. Another use for the text to speech option is for better pronunciation during the Oral exams, so you can use this function to help your phrasing and sentence structure. Audio recordings on apps such as voice memo and audacity can also help with learning and studying for the Orals, as students can record their own voices saying their pre-prepared answers and re-listen to it over and over again as practice as this is useful for retaining a language. Some students also find it helpful to record information and listen to it while they are sleeping as they believe it helps them retain the information better. Laptops can be a great way to store notes. After notes have been written you can use different sites it saves them such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, etc. You can also add an external drive to save the documents onto it well so you can safely back your data up.

Some helpful sites:

Google Drive
Khan Academy
Study Clicks
Spark Notes
Quizlet / Flashcard caps
Grammarly
Zoom
Audacity
YouTube
Duolingo
Forest / Todoist/ Tomato Timer, etc.

Some of these apps transcend to the mobile.

Minimum Laptop Requirements:

It is recommended that when getting a laptop to use for these purposes you should follow the minimum laptop requirement of having a 500 GB Solid-state hard drive and 8 GB of Ram, as a normal spin drive laptop might be too slow to process what you need. To be efficient with notetaking, your laptop needs to be up to sufficient standards. It is also recommended for your laptop but nothing less than Windows 10, though the preferred update would be windows 11.

How to best protect your laptop:

You can protect your laptop in lots of different ways but getting antivirus software is a great start. You can access some of these for free online. Backing up your computer onto a flash drive and keeping it regularly updated is another way to keep your laptop safe. Never click a link on an email from a sender you don’t know. You can also download pop-up blockers and add-blockers to allow you to set your own security measures. Google itself is also very good at filtering out bad websites; if you search the site and it does not come up then the site is potentially unsafe.

Why Touch typing?

Touch typing is a huge benefit to a student who is dyslexic. Touch typing can greatly improve predictability. It is a way to type faster and more accurately, without having to constantly look at the keyboard. Here at Searsol we have lots of camps and course centers for your child to learn this skill, as it is encouraged to learn during childhood as it can have an effect of the Lord of the Rings. A recommendation from Searsol is to try to get up to 25 words per minute (really good typing speed for exams for students with laptop extensions). Searsol offers typing courses to help you with this. A free trial assessment at any of our course centers can be booked at https://searsol.com/

New Searsol touch typing centre starting in April 2022 in Cabinteely, Dublin 18

Speedskin covers to stop your child from looking down at the keyboard!

New Searsol typing classes starting in Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Searsol is starting a new after-school touch-typing class in Cabinteely Community School in Cabinteely starting on Tuesday the 26th of April 2022 at 4 or 5 pm.

Our typing classes will be starting on the 26th of April 2022 in Cabinteely Community School and will take place each Wednesday at 4 or 5 pm. Searsol is currently offering a free introductory first session trial of Searsol’s after-school typing courses for any child who is eight years old or older that may be interested in trying out our touch typing course.

Our typing course is specifically designed to develop typing skills for children. Searsol has provided after-school typing courses for children since 2008. We have a high success rate of students that have successfully learned how to touch type. During the course, the student will learn how to touch type correctly assisted by a qualified tutor. We use our own specially designed typing software which is only available through our centre.

This course is suitable for children who want to learn how to type correctly. We work with children with learning differences like Dyslexia or Dyspraxia or children with handwriting problems or have gained an exemption to use a laptop for exams. To book your free trial place you can contact Searsol on 01-6303384 or book a free trial at our Cabinteely centre by click here

Searsol Computer Camps 2022 – children and teenagers – Dundrum, Malahide and Lucan

Searsol computer Camps for children and teenagers run over Easter and the month of July 2022 in Dublin – Dundrum, Malahide and Lucan.

Looking for something productive for your child or teen to do over Easter or Summer? Why not enroll them in our Searsol computer skills camps where they will learn a range of computer skills which will help them through school and beyond. The camps are taking place in the following locations this year:

There are two levels available to book on our website at: searsolcomputercamps.com/computercamps

Level 1 – children up to the age of 12

Level 2 – teenage computer camps

Level 1 Computer course is suitable for 8 – 12 years old (Primary school) and offers the following:

Computer Camp – Level 1 – 8 -10-year-olds

First Hour – Touch Typing

Typewiz typing tutor – designed specifically for children.

Touch Typing – the first hour of the course is dedicated to learning how to touch type. Using our typing tutor Typewiz. Your child will be shown how to type correctly using their eight fingers. Helping them to improve their typing skills and saving them time doing their homework/projects for schools

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides

Email – Learn how to compose email reply, forward

Email fundamentals – Compose, reply, forward messages, and add attachments. Learn how to send an email and become confident about how to use email.

Word Processing – introduction to word processing. Your child will learn how to use word processing to create documents. They will learn how to format, insert images, change fonts and sizes. Giving them the confidence to use word processing to create documents for school homework and projects.

Presentation slides – Your child will learn how to create presentation slides similar to PowerPoint. They will learn how to insert images, add animation, insert video, formatting. This will give them the knowledge to create slides for classroom presentations.

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

In the last how your Child will get to do the following:

Design their online comic book.
Creating their own avatar or character
Design and print birthday cards.
Download images from Google images
Creating their own Picture collages.
Draw and edit their own images.
Uploading, editing, and cropping pictures.
Image design
Introduction to coding
And much more…

Level 2 Computer course is suitable for Teenagers and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Your teen will learn how to touch-type using our Typewiz typing tutor. Specifically designed for children to learn how to type fast and effectively.

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides / Spreadsheets

Email fundamentals – setting up and using email correctly. Compose, reply, forward messages and add attachments. Sending business emails.

Word Processing – Intermediate word exercises, formatting creating tables, borders, etc.

Presentation slides – create, animate, insert images, format, insert tables, add videos.

Spreadsheet – creating, add function, minus function, sum function.

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

In the last how your Teen will get to do the following:

Creating their own online comic book.
Design their own avatar and character
Download images from google images
Creating their own Picture collages.
Draw and edit your own images.
Uploading, editing and cropping pictures.
Image design
Coding
And much more…

To book a place on the course go to https://searsolcomputercamps.com/computercamps

Searsol computer classroom based camps now available to book over the month of July 2021 in Dublin – Artane, Dundrum and Lucan.

Searsol classroom-based computer Camps now available to book over the month of July 2021 in Dublin – Artane, Dundrum and Lucan.

Looking for something productive for your child to do over the Summer? Why not enrol them in our Searsol computer skills camps where they will learn a range of computer skills which will help them through school and beyond. Camps start on Monday 28th of June and runs for five weeks. The camps are taken place in the following locations this year:

There are two levels available to book on our website at searsolcomputercamps.com/computercamps

Level 1 Computer course is suitable for children from 8 years old (Primary school) and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides

Email fundamentals – Compose, reply, and forward messages and adding attachments. Learn how to send an email and become confident about how to use email.

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

In the last how your Child will get to do the following:

Design their online comic book.
Creating their own avatar or character
Design and print birthday cards.
Download images from Google images
Creating their own Picture collages.
Draw and edit their own images.
Uploading, editing, and cropping pictures.
Image design
Coding
And much more…

Level 2 Computer course is suitable for Teenagers and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Your teen will learn how to touch-type using our Typewiz typing tutor. Specifically designed for children to learn how to type fast and effectively.

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides / Spreadsheets

Email fundamentals – setting up and using email correctly. Compose, reply, and forward messages and adding attachments. Sending business emails.

Word Processing – Intermediate word exercises, formatting creating tables, borders etc.

Presentation slides – create, animate, insert images, format, inserting tables, adding videos.

Spreadsheet – creating, add function, minus function, sum function.

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

In the last how your Teen will get to do the following:

Creating their own online comic book.
Design their own avatar and character
Download images from google images
Creating their own Picture collages.
Draw and edit your own images.
Uploading, editing and cropping pictures.
Image design
Coding
And much more…

To book a place on the course go to https://searsolcomputercamps.com/computercamps

Why is it better for your child to learn how to type than to write?

Before we go into detail as to why it is better for your child for them to type than to write, it must be first made clear that writing is not a bad thing for your child and we do encourage that if they can pick being able to write easy, then they should continue to write as well as learning the skill of typing. Typing is something which is becoming more and more prominent nowadays so getting your child to learn this skill is extremely necessary and will be of benefit to them for the entirety of their life.

Firstly, let’s look at touch typing. Touch-typing is something which is of benefit to everyone, not only people who may struggle to write properly. When being able to touch type not only will you be able to type faster, but you will be able to do this without the need of having to look at the screen on the computer. Things like transcribing are also made a whole lot easier, due to the fact that when you’re touch-typing your eyes can stay on the paper and you can ensure that your figures will be able to do the job when typing.

Now let’s look at reasons why touch typing is a skill worth in.

Let’s look at a few of the key reasons as to why touch typing is such an important skill:

Comfort will improve: when a child starts to learn how to touch type, they will then become much more comfortable with how their hands are operating when they are typing. This is because when you can have your hands centered on the keyboard it will allow you to place your fingers more evenly across the keyboard.

Fewer mistakes made: with touch typing, this will be more effective than say a hunt and peck type method as it will lead to less errors by the individual being made. Now of course at first, mistakes will obviously be made when you are trying to get used to aligning your fingers in the correct position on the keyboard and keeping your eyes fixated to the screen, but once you are used to this method it will become much easier to adjust any errors as you will be already looking at the screen to notice the mistake made.

Typing speed increases: as touched upon on the previous point, keeping your eyes off the keyboard and fixated on the screen will give you a huge boost in your ability to type faster. Think about note-taking in the classroom or even at work. It often happens that notes are being taken at such a quick rate that you will struggle to be able to take down all the necessary information that is being said, and this can lead to crucial bits of information not being taken down by the individual. What touch typing does is not necessarily ensure that every single bit of note-taking will be taken down but it will vastly improve the speed in which a person can do this. Mistakes may be made along the way but at least you will have the bulk of what is being said down and you can adjust and fix this information later.

Now let’s look at an example of a touching typing course which is known as Typewiz. Typewiz touch typing lessons are designed in a way to be short and encourage the child to complete their next lesson by achieving rewards and moving up leaderboards. Below is a little deeper insight into why you should get your child started with Typewiz.

Typing games: Typewiz has fun and interactive games for your child to enjoy. Typewiz allows your child to compete with kids in their age range and they can try improving by moving up leaderboards. A virtual coin is used for each game and will measure your child’s performance of how they’re getting on in the course, which will then motivate them to complete exercises as fast and efficiently as possible.

– Avatar rewards: Typewiz allows your child to earn an avatar as they complete each lesson, and these include many cool-looking avatars which will motivate the child to focus and do the best they can in order to achieve their desired avatar.

– Modular design: the modular design which Typewiz provides is something that is easy on the eye for children and really creates an amazing environment for children to learn how to touch type.

– Reporting: This is of huge benefit to parents of the children, as Typewiz offers a report showing how your child is getting on and progressing along throughout the duration of the course. The report will give you key information such as exercises your child has completed, average accuracy, highest score, and much, much more. This information can be shown weekly, over the last 6 months, the past year, or all the time. Typewiz will show you both accuracy and words per minute graphs in the report, so it can easily be available to view and print off either.

Now after looking at an example of a touch typing game and why it would be of benefit to your child, it is clear that typing is something which is essential to learn at an early age and would of be of great use to any young person. In school writing is of course still used for exams and note-taking by students, however with colleges now really putting emphasis on doing exams from home on computers due to the pandemic we find ourselves in, it would not be of any surprise if this was to be the way forward for learning in the near future.

Dyslexia, DCD and dysgraphia – what do those learning differences mean and how do they affect your child?

Dyslexia, DCD, and dysgraphia – what do those learning differences mean and how do they affect your child?

Dyslexia, DCD, and Dysgraphia are 3 different types of conditions. They are all conditions that are common so there is a chance that your child may have one of these 3. Let’s have a look into each of these learning disorders.

What Is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is best described as an unexpected difficulty with being able to read. Children that have dyslexia may encounter problems when it comes to the recognition and manipulation of sounds with language. Decoding words is something that children with dyslexia will have great difficulty with, which essentially means breaking down these words or phonemes and then sounding out novel words. Dyslexia makes it hard for the child to recognize words, read and write properly, and even spell properly. It’s important to note that a child who has dyslexia does not necessarily lack intelligence. A child with dyslexia may not even be that far behind their other peers in school due to the hard effort they may be putting in to be at the same level as everyone else in their class. However, it must be noted that this is only sustainable for a child with dyslexia for so long. As they start to get older in school they will struggle to keep up with their fellow classmates as the reading, writing, and spelling will, of course, become harder as they grow older. Dyslexia is something that isn’t necessarily an illness but is something that a person will have throughout their entire life.

However, by taking the appropriate measures towards understanding the difficulties and challenges are that come with having dyslexia it can then be made much easier to live with. When really delving into dyslexia and its impact it will have on a person, it is something that is a brain-based issue with language. That is why kids will have issues with being able to work with the sounds of language. It’s important to remember that reading issues may still exist for children with dyslexia even after they have been able to learn and read properly. The ability for a child to read that has dyslexia is more so a mechanical one. This is why children which have dyslexia will best be able to learn with reading programs that are systematic and take an explicit multisensory approach to. By doing this it will enhance the likelihood of a child being able to successfully identify words.

What is DCD?

DCD an abbreviation for developmental coordination disorder is a condition that is lifelong for a human being which makes it difficult for the person to learn motor skills and will also have issues with their coordination. DCD unlike Dyslexia is not known as a learning disorder, but it will have the ability to have an impact on their learning. Instead of being labeled as a learning disorder, it is seen as a neurodevelopment disorder. ADHD which you may be aware of is also a neurodevelopment disorder. Things like physical tasks and activities in school will be what the child with DCD will tend to struggle with. When looking at how many kids are living with this condition, it lands in and around the 5 percent mark. It is important to note, however, that DCD is something that is more common with boys than with girls. There is no way for a child to grow out of having this condition but applying the necessary steps, will go a long way to improving the child’s motor skills. Many things which a child will need to learn when in school will prove to be difficult for them due to them having DCD, examples of this being writing and organisation. It’s not only in school where DCD will be an issue for a child, it’s also outside of the classroom. For instance, their motor skills will be affected when it comes to them brushing their teeth and putting on clothes also. Earlier lessons that kids would have learned will be affected as they will not necessarily remember what they were first thought. If they were told to put a knife in their right hand and a fork in their left, they may not remember this and end up doing the opposite and not learning from their wrongdoings. The key to overcome DCD is to understand as early as possible the difficulties your child is facing and to take the necessary steps to overcome them.

What is Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a disability that affects a person’s ability to write. Not only does it affect ones writing ability it will also cause a person to have issues with their motor skills. Spelling, word spacing, and sizing are things which are aspects that a person with dysgraphia will have. Let’s take a look at some of the symptoms that come from having dysgraphia.

Painfully gripping a pen or pencil by holding too firm.
The sentence structure is off what it should be.
Writing down the thoughts you may have in your head onto the paper.

These symptoms are able to change over time, as usual, it’s the mechanics of writing which young people will tend to have whereas it’d be more so grammar and comprehension difficulties for adults.

So, what causes a person to have dysgraphia? Scientists are not sure as to why it happens to children. When an adult is diagnosed with it, it can be related to a brain injury such as a stroke. Like other disorders which have been previously discussed, there is no cure for Dysgraphia. Things you can try in order to help your child may range from using grips on pencils for comfort to letting them use a computer as an alternative to writing and teach the person typing skills as early as possible.

Benefits of touch typing for a child with dyslexia

Improved productivity

Less stressful in exams

Typing at the speed of thought

Messy handwriting will be eliminated

Increased confidence

Why should you learn how to touch type?

Future job benefits from learning how to type

Why is learning how to touch type beneficial for children?

WPM speed requirement for exams

Best uses of Laptops for Exams

New Searsol typing classes starting in Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Searsol is starting a new after-school touch-typing class in Cabinteely Community School in Cabinteely starting on Tuesday the 26th of April 2022 at 4 or 5 pm.

Searsol computer Camps for children and teenagers run over Easter and the month of July 2022 in Dublin – Dundrum, Malahide and Lucan.

Level 1 Computer course is suitable for 8 – 12 years old (Primary school) and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

Level 2 Computer course is suitable for Teenagers and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides / Spreadsheets

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

Searsol classroom-based computer Camps now available to book over the month of July 2021 in Dublin – Artane, Dundrum and Lucan.

Level 1 Computer course is suitable for children from 8 years old (Primary school) and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

Level 2 Computer course is suitable for Teenagers and offers the following:

First Hour – Touch Typing

Second Hour – Email / Word Processing / Presentation Slides / Spreadsheets

Third Hour – Fun Stuff – Design / Create / Draw and Animate

Why is it better for your child to learn how to type than to write?

Dyslexia, DCD, and dysgraphia – what do those learning differences mean and how do they affect your child?