In today’s digital era, typing games have become essential for kids to enhance their keyboarding skills. Gone are the days when writing was the sole method of communication. Today, children have access to various digital devices, making it necessary to polish their typing skills.
Keyboard games offer the perfect opportunity to do this with their user-friendly interfaces and game-based learning. With that in mind, let’s look at the top five free typing games available online that can refine your child’s keyboard skills.
This article will highlight the value of typing for kids and introduce you to five outstanding free typing games you can download for your little wonder.
Why Kids Should Learn to Type
Typing started as a way to connect with people over the internet or send emails. Today, however, it’s a skill that every kid needs to know to have an advantage in their class. To clinch this advantage, free typing games are your best avenue.
Let’s discuss a few reasons why kids should learn to type in detail:
Better Reading Skills:
This may be surprising, but typing is an excellent way to polish your reading skills! Even to read, kids have to first master mapping sounds to letters. This helps them break down the words. In most of these games, kids hear a letter read out loud in the earlier stages and then type the key representing the letter.
This helps support phonics and allows kids to easily sound out words. Children begin to recognize high-frequency words just by looking at them as they progress as readers. Seeing a word several times makes it easier for kids to recognize it next time.
Sharpened Writing Skills:
Designed for kids and adults, games such as typing race games help improve typing accuracy and speed. It’s well known that writing on computers is one of the best ways for writers to organize their ideas and edit their work. This is a vital component for kids who are just beginning to learn how to express themselves through their writing.
The fact here is that if you don’t have to search for every key, then typing will be a lot easier! The hunt-and-press method of typing can be extremely frustrating if you’re a writer, and it becomes difficult to translate thoughts into words through that process.
Hence, online game typing helps children develop a sharpened writing sense from a young age. It allows them to express their ideas freely without looking down at the keyboard every 2 seconds!
Enhanced Self-Esteem:
Being armed with the correct skills in this challenging digitalized world can do wonders for a child’s self-esteem. Typing sits atop the list of these skills and keyboard games are wonderful tools that can polish your kid’s keyboarding ability (especially for children with learning difficulties).
These online keyboard courses allow kids to learn at a pace that suits them best. This ensures there’s not too much pressure on them. The positive feedback in these games (through badges and exciting music) helps motivate and encourage children to do the best they can. This can carry over into other areas of the classroom as well.
Lifelong Computer Skills:
When kids enter their schooling years and are given longer assignments to complete, being at ease on a computer and having the ability to type swiftly and precisely help greatly in accomplishing written tasks.
Keyboard skills are useful for composing personal emails and using the internet, and they make it simpler to find employment, especially in jobs that need good typing abilities.
How Effective Are Typing Games?
The performance of kids across their schooling years can be improved with the aid of educational technology (such as typing games). This can also help youngsters develop their reading skills and manage any learning difficulties.
Even though there are applications that offer customized lesson plans for kids, it’s always better to start by going back to the basics. In this case, that’s online game typing.
The effectiveness of these games can be judged by considering a few pointers. First of all, typing without looking at the keyboard allows kids to focus on the task at hand, instead of spending time hunting for letters.
This multi-sensory approach of typing helps strengthen reading, writing, and spelling skills.
Moreover, free keyboard games help children get ready for later grades when they have to submit their assignments using computers.
Finally, typing games help kids suffering from dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dysgraphia and allow them to complete written assignments with more ease.
In short, typing offers a direct method of giving shape to your kid’s thoughts through their fingertips. These keyboard games help significantly in sharpening this skill.
Now that you understand the undeniable benefits of typing games in enhancing a child’s skills, let’s look at some of the best options available.
The Top 5 Free Online Typing Games
If you’re looking for keyboard games for your child, rest assured. We compiled a list of the best typing games we played for you to choose from. Let’s dive in!
TypingClub
TypingClub hosts a masterfully designed typing curriculum with several useful lessons for kids. These lessons range from home rows (traditional resting places for hands on the keyboard) to lengthy paragraphs.
The best part is that students are provided instant feedback as they continue typing, including badges to motivate them when they reach a milestone. Advanced students have the option to skip a few levels and get to the areas they need to focus on.
Furthermore, typing data is also available for examination, such as WPM (Words per minute), accuracy percentage, and activity over time. Kids can easily play this engaging game anywhere with internet access.
Nitro Type
Nitro type is an interactive car racing game where typing accuracy and speed are the key to victory! In the beginning, you’ll be provided with a basic vehicle placed on a race track with other players.
Once the race begins, all racers have to type words they see on the screen to speed up their cars. Fast and accurate typers will find their car zooming toward the finish line to claim sweet victory!
The best part about this typing game is that it allows kids to increase their WPM (words per minute) as they are in a contest where the fastest typer wins. It’s an excellent game to keep kids engaged and help them polish their typing skills!
Type Racer
Similar to Nitro Type, Type Racer is an innovative typing speed game in which kids/adults race against each other based on their typing speed. It’s designed for both kids and adults and offers a fun, exciting method of learning to type quicker without making mistakes.
One of the best things about this game is that it provides typing speed progress reports in the ‘My scores’ tab. You can analyze the typing reports to identify areas of improvement.
Type Racer can also be used creatively to introduce new literature and teach history to students, thanks to its wide range of typing content. To get started, you can sign up or participate in these games anonymously.
Keybr
Another wonderful tool to polish writing skills is Keybr. It comes packed with several typing exercises with different difficulty levels to help you find the perfect match.
The goal of Keybr is to improve your typing to the point where your muscle memory is trained to type based on the feel of keyboard strokes.
It’s user-friendly and offers a fun multiplayer mode! You can begin a practice session at Keybr the moment the website loads.
Dance Mat Typing
Dance Mat Typing is a wonderful game that teaches typing to kids and adults alike. There are 12 stages (three stages for every level) that build the number of keys players are expected to master.
The start of the lessons focuses on individual keys, and soon, the focus moves to short sentences and words. Every completed exercise unlocks musical numbers and praise to motivate players to go further.
One of the best parts of this game is that it doesn’t focus too much on the errors. As it’s designed to motivate you and build your typing skills, there’s no penalty for making mistakes. Finally, feedback is available on accuracy and words per minute to further fine-tune your exercises.
Conclusion
Typing games are a valuable educational tool for kids worldwide. They offer several benefits to help enhance your skills and development. These games teach the fundamentals of typing (while providing entertainment) through their interactive gameplay.
For various age groups and ability levels, several free typing games are available. Through these games, you can actively improve your children’s learning process and assist them in acquiring critical typing skills that will benefit them throughout their life.
By exploring the five games listed above, you can provide your kids with an effective and enjoyable learning experience. So, what are you waiting for? Encourage your kid to start their exciting typing adventure today!
Farah is a technology enthusiast with a keen interest in AI, ML, and anything digital. Her passion for technology extends into her work as she currently manages the blog and social media for one of Canada’s most awarded tech and IT companies, in addition to consulting and writing for other brands. She’s an avid reader, writer, and researcher who is always looking out for the next big update in the digital world.
