How Can I Learn To Type Faster In Typing Games?

Learning to type can be the key to later educational success for most students in this 21st century world.  Acquiring key typing skills will not only set them up for computing and composing digitally in their future work, but it will also help their minds be able to translate quicker into words.  Typing is a necessary skill that can be mastered in a very short amount of time with regular practice with quality online typing games.

What Will Help Me Type Faster?

Posture & Home Row

Knowing the basics can get you far, and also keep your wrists from cramping.  Students over age 7 should have large enough hands and solid enough hand-eye coordination to begin typing lessons.  Sitting up tall with feet flat on the floor and shoulders back is the best body position for learning.  Your fingers should always begin and rest at the home row keys – ASDF JKL; – so always begin from this position so your fingers will be trained to reach and move from this base.  The QWERTY keyboard is designed for perfect access to the most frequently used letters.

Scan Ahead

Training your eyes to scan 2-3 letters ahead should be your goal.  Eventually you will be able to scan 2-3 words ahead as your fingers do the work. 

Slow & Steady

Don’t try to win any races.  Accuracy needs to come first, even if you are very slow to start.  Try not to look at the keys while you type to gain the muscle memory.  The more familiar your fingers are with the location of the keys, the faster you will be able to type.

What Games Should I Play to Type Faster?

Touch-Typing Games

Games that involve repeating the same letter or a few letters at a time in different combinations will train your hands and eyes to their exact location on the keyboard.  After you become adept at locating the letters on the home row, you can move to the upper and then lower rows.  Nonsense patterns can be more helpful at first when training the positions, as your brain isn’t interfering with word processing.

Pattern Games

Games that utilize common letter patterns or chucks of phonemes can be extremely helpful, as your fingers will learn the feel of the letter combinations.  This is the next building block in the process after touch-typing.

Speed Games

Once you’ve achieved accuracy with the letters, it’s time to work on increasing speed.  Look for speed typing games that keep you to a time limit, include added pressure to type the keys at an increasing pace, and/or ones that show your fluency rate – words per minute.  Always aim to type faster than you did the last time.

Real-World Content Games

Finally, you can move on to typing sentences and including punctuation in real-world sentences.  This will train your mind to think in terms of words and prepare you for typing from memory.

There are loads of free typing games for kids on the internet, and you just have to know which ones to look for.  It isn’t only the game, though – it’s the time that you put into learning.  Try for 15-20 minutes a day for two weeks and see how much you’ve improved!