An article by Richard James Rogers (Award-Winning Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback)
This blog post has been beautifully illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati.
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Over the past twenty years of my teaching career, I’ve seen many “essential skills” come and go. Some fade. Some evolve. But one has quietly become more important every single year: typing.
And I don’t just mean basic typing. I’m talking about fluent, confident, automatic typing.
Because here is the reality: our students are thinking faster than they can type. In a world where digital communication is essential, typing has become a life skill that every child must master before finishing school.
The Problem I Noticed in My Own Classroom
A few years ago, I began to notice something frustrating in some of my lessons.
Students had excellent ideas and, in many cases, could articulate genuinely insightful responses. But when it came time to write those ideas down digitally, everything slowed. Many were hunting for keys, making frequent errors, and often losing their train of thought halfway through a sentence.
It became clear to me that this was not a thinking problem, and it certainly was not a knowledge problem. It was a typing fluency problem.
When students cannot type efficiently, their working memory becomes overloaded. Instead of focusing on what they want to say, they are concentrating on how to say it mechanically. The result is shorter answers, reduced clarity, and, quite often, frustration.
Why Traditional Typing Practice Falls Short
Most traditional typing programs rely on repetition through drills. While repetition is important, the format is often uninspiring.
Long passages, rigid exercises, and a lack of variation mean that students disengage quickly. Once that happens, independent practice tends to stop, and progress stalls.
In my experience, students rarely improve at typing through methods they do not enjoy.
A Simple Shift That Made a Big Difference
To address this, I made a small but significant change. I began integrating typing games into my lessons. Rather than presenting typing as a standalone skill to be practised in isolation, I embedded it within something students already enjoy: play.
One platform I have found particularly effective for this purpose is KidzType.
It’s free, easy to access, and offers a wide range of activities that combine skill development with engaging gameplay. Importantly, it removes the sense that students are “doing a typing lesson” and replaces it with a more natural, low-pressure experience.
Why Typing Games Work
From a classroom management perspective, the impact has been very clear.
Firstly, engagement improves immediately. Students are far more willing to practise when the activity feels enjoyable. It is not unusual for them to remain focused for extended periods without prompting.
Secondly, progress accelerates. Games encourage repetition in a way that does not feel forced. Students will replay levels, aim to beat their previous scores, and in doing so, build both speed and accuracy.
Thirdly, confidence develops quickly. Small wins matter. When a student sees their words-per-minute increase or completes a challenge successfully, they begin to view themselves as capable. That shift in mindset carries over into other areas of their learning.
In one case, a Year 7 student of mine (aged 11 years) who struggled to type even short sentences began completing full paragraphs within a few weeks of consistent practice.
How I Use Typing Games in My Lessons
The approach I take is simple and consistent.
At the start of a lesson, I often include a short five or ten minute activity where students access a selection of typing games for kids to use in the classroom.
These browser-based games combine speed, accuracy, and fun challenges, making practice engaging and effective for students.
There is no lengthy introduction. Students begin straight away, which sets a positive tone for the lesson. At times when energy levels dip, I will reintroduce a short challenge. Asking students to beat their previous score is usually enough to refocus the group very quickly.
Over the course of a week or term, I encourage students to keep track of their progress. Monitoring speed and accuracy gives them a sense of ownership without adding unnecessary pressure.
The Wider Impact on Learning
What I did not fully anticipate was how much this would influence other aspects of classroom performance.
As students became more fluent typists, they began to write more. Their answers were longer, more detailed, and completed more efficiently. More importantly, their focus shifted away from the mechanics of typing and towards the quality of their ideas.
Typing ceased to be a barrier and instead became a tool that supported learning.
Final Thoughts
Developing typing fluency does not require complex systems or additional workload. In many cases, it simply requires a change in approach.
By making practice engaging and accessible, we can help students build a skill that supports them across every subject area. This is so important because when students can type with confidence, their thinking flows more naturally onto the page.
That is when we begin to see the full extent of what they are capable of.
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