On the acquisition of typing skills without formal training by school-aged children.
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| Title: | On the acquisition of typing skills without formal training by school-aged children. |
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| Authors: | Pinet, Svetlana1,2 (AUTHOR) svetlana.pinet@univ-lille.fr, Zielinski, Christelle3 (AUTHOR), Alario, F.-Xavier4 (AUTHOR), Longcamp, Marieke4 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Reading & Writing. Feb2026, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p485-513. 29p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Nonformal education, *School children, *Computer literacy, *Cognitive psychology, *Curriculum, Keyboarding, Psycholinguistics |
| Abstract: | Typing is not formally taught at school in most European countries, despite digital activities being increasingly prevalent in children's curricular requirements. Typing skills presumably emerge from informal practice, modulated by the availability and use of keyboards at school or at home. The cognitive processes leading to typing skill acquisition in children have not been described in any detail. We explored whether these processes can be characterized within a standard theory of typing automatization in adults. We collected data from a cross-sectional sample of 131 children schooled in grades 4–9. The study was conducted on-line, at home, under the supervision of a caregiver. Children performed various chronometric tasks requiring single letter, single word, and sentence typing, followed by a questionnaire of typing habits, each lasting a few minutes. Questionnaire self-reports indicate that the time spent typing or handwriting was stable over grades, but that the number of fingers used increased with grade. Across chronometric tasks, typing speed increased and keypress duration variability decreased with grade. Typing performance for single letters and for words was modulated by a combination of psycholinguistic factors and physical constraints, whose influence decreased with grade. This pattern points to the ongoing—yet incomplete—organization of the typing process into two control loops, similar to adults. Performance in text composition and text copying were highly correlated, indicating that composition quality is much influenced by peripheral processes. The current study opens avenues to fully understand the cognitive processes underlying the acquisition of typing skills, and to inform educators about the stakes involved in teaching typing in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Education Research Complete |
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