Touch Typing for Kids

In-person touch typing courses for children in London

Touch Typing for Kids is a British academy dedicated to teaching touch typing to children and teenagers through in-person courses in small groups. According to its own presentation, it is the longest running in-person typing course for children in the UK. Classes are taught by two specialist teachers, Delia and Seth Gascoigne, who have over fifty years of combined experience in the field of special educational needs and specific learning difficulties.

The activity takes place at its Finchley Central premises and also in schools in and around London, where they offer courses within the schools themselves.

Methodology and individual monitoring

The course approach combines multi-sensory techniques with hands-on activities, games, mnemonic rules and a system of incentives and prizes designed to keep students motivated. Groups are small, allowing teachers to adapt learning objectives to each student, whether beginner, intermediate or advanced.

Parents receive daily face-to-face updates on their child's progress and, at the end of the course, individualised guidance on next steps and how to continue practising touch typing. The academy provides laptops during the course, which students also use at home, so no personal equipment is necessary.

Levels and content by student profile

• Beginners: learning with colour-coded keys covering the keyboard, before hunt-and-peck habits become established. Keyboard knowledge is reinforced through mnemonics and hands-on activities.
• Intermediate: work focused on improving speed and accuracy, with specific attention to punctuation.
• Advanced: keyboard mastery, increased speed and accuracy, note-taking, real-time touch typing under timed conditions, dictation and planning strategies.

Course formats

The offer is structured into two in-person formats. On the one hand, intensive holiday courses, with five one-and-a-half-hour sessions over five days, held during half-terms, Christmas, Easter and summer holidays at the Finchley Central premises. On the other, weekly term-time courses, with five one-and-a-half-hour sessions over five weeks, on Wednesdays after school, at the same premises. This second format is designed especially for students who need more practice time.

Target students

The courses accept ages from 7 (Year 3) to 17 (Year 12), regardless of skill level. The academy notes that learning touch typing is particularly useful for students with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, hypermobility and processing difficulties, as it helps them to get their ideas down more efficiently and to improve spelling, grammar, punctuation and editing. The courses are also presented as a booster for those who use a laptop in 11 plus, GCSE and A Level exams.

Teaching team and tutors

Delia Gascoigne is a specialist teacher, assessor and consultant with over twenty-six years of experience in the field of special educational needs. She began teaching typing in 2001 in the United States, at the Allegro School in New Jersey, where she introduced typing for young people with autism as a life and career skill. Seth Gascoigne is a specialist teacher, assessor and consultant, with a practising certificate since 2010 (OCR Level 7) and a member of the Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (PATOSS).

Both run the Hampstead Dyslexia Clinic, founded in 1984, and independently manage Dyslexia Assessment and Access Arrangements Ltd and Specialist Teachers for Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Ltd. The courses also have assistant tutors, mostly former students, aged between 18 and 30, able to type at a minimum of 45 words per minute with over 90% accuracy, who serve as role models and encouragement for students.

Collaboration with schools

In addition to the open courses at its premises, the academy runs programmes within schools in and around London, with specific strands for students with special educational needs (SEN) and for high-achieving students.