Touch Typing for Kids: How It Works, Step by Step

Touch typing for kids is very doable between ages 8 and 14, as long as it is learned in the right order and practiced little and often. Here is what touch typing actually is, which finger goes on which key, the steps kids go through, and what you can do as a parent.

What is touch typing?

Touch typing means typing with all ten fingers, where every finger has its own keys, while looking at the screen instead of the keyboard. Schools often call the broader skill keyboarding; touch typing is the technique that makes keyboarding fast and comfortable.

The difference from hunt-and-peck is big. A child who hunts for every letter has to look down for each key and keeps losing the thread of what they wanted to write. A child who touch types only thinks about the sentence. They notice it with every book report and every essay on the school Chromebook, and even more in middle school, where almost everything is typed.

The finger chart: which finger types which key?

It all starts at the home row, the middle row of letters. The left hand rests on A-S-D-F, the right hand on J-K-L-;, and the thumbs rest on the space bar. The F and J keys have small bumps: that is where the index fingers go, so your child can find the home row again without looking.

From the home row, every finger covers a slanted column of keys above and below it. The index fingers do the most work: each one also covers the column next to it, toward the middle. After every keystroke, the finger returns home. This is the chart for a standard US keyboard, the same one the game uses:

• Left pinky: Q A Z (and 1 on the number row)
• Left ring finger: W S X (and 2 on the number row)
• Left middle finger: E D C (and 3 on the number row)
• Left index finger: R F V T G B (and 4, 5 on the number row)
• Right index finger: Y H N U J M (and 6, 7 on the number row)
• Right middle finger: I K , (and 8 on the number row)
• Right ring finger: O L . (and 9 on the number row)
• Right pinky: P ; (and 0 on the number row)
• Thumbs: the space bar

For a closer look at each finger, and at capital letters, read Typing Finger Placement: Which Finger, Which Key?

Touch typing step by step

Kids learn touch typing most easily in a fixed order. Each step builds on the one before; move on only when the current step works without looking.

1. Sit well and find the home row. Back straight, feet on the floor, wrists floating above the keyboard. Fingers on the home row, index fingers on the bumps.
2. The home row itself. F and J, then D and K, S and L, A and ;, and then G and H with the index fingers. With just these letters you can already type words like sad, flash and glass.
3. The row above. E, I, R, U, T and Y: the finger reaches up and comes straight back.
4. The row below and the rest. N, M, O, W, C and V, then P, Q, B, X and Z.
5. Capitals and punctuation. The pinky of the other hand holds Shift. A capital F: right pinky on Shift, left index finger on F.
6. Numbers. The top row, with the same fingers as the column below it.

This is also the order in which Typcoon introduces the keys: one new letter at a time, and only once the previous one has stuck.

How often to practice, and how long it takes

Little and often works best. Ten minutes a day is enough for most kids, and it beats an hour on the weekend: touch typing lives in the fingers, and that kind of memory is built by repetition. Read why in How Long Should Kids Practice Typing Each Day?

How long it takes varies from child to child and depends mostly on how regularly they practice. The home row usually settles within a few weeks; typing fluently without looking takes a few months. There is an honest overview in How Long Does It Take a Kid to Learn to Type?

What parents can do

• Praise accuracy, not speed. Speed comes by itself. A mistake that gets baked in now takes effort to unlearn later.
• Watch for peeking. If your child keeps looking down at the keys, the step is too big. Going back to the letters that do work without looking is not going backward.
• Pick a fixed time. Right after school or before dinner, so it doesn't need negotiating every day.
• Sit with them the first time. Check that the hands rest on the home row and the wrists aren't slumped on the desk. After that, they can go on their own.
• Expect the dip. At first, typing with ten fingers is slower than hunting with two. That is normal, and it passes.

Not sure your child is ready? Read What Age Should Kids Learn to Type? The bigger picture, including free versus paid options, is in our guide Typing for Kids: The Complete Guide.

Touch typing with Typcoon

In Typcoon, your child types a city back on. Every task is a command that has to be typed, and accurate typing earns the most. The next key lights up on screen in the color of the finger that should press it, with the name of that finger below it, so the eyes stay on the screen. Letters that are still shaky come back more often by themselves. After 10 minutes, the game tells your child they are done for the day.

The home row and the whole first district are free, with no account and no ads. How the game teaches, in detail, is on our About Typcoon page.

▶ Start the home row for free

Learn to type while you switch a city back on

In Typcoon: Nightcode, every command your child types switches a piece of a blacked-out city back on. Typing neatly earns the most, so your child learns to touch type without even noticing. Free to try, no account needed.

▶ Play free