Ideas for one-handed typing?

[bobbysmom]

My son is 12 and is having more and more need to type. I would like to teach him to type with one hand, but could use some tips or suggestions on this, including manuals. Thanks for any ideas.

[Mare]

I tryed all the programs for one handed typing and failed Frankie now 16 types really fast he just figured it out when he started IMing friends. just let him play on the computer and he will teach himself it won't be the correct way with finger placement but that doesn't matter
Mare

[claudia]

Juliana covers most of the keyboard with one hand, and uses her left pointer for the rest. It made the "keyboarding" instructor at school crazy. We had to bring in her teacher to straighten out the instructor!! She is very quick and it suits her. She is refining it as she gets older (she is 9 1/2 now) and uses the computer more and more.

I think they are better at figuring it out than programs are at teaching them.

claudia

[Karen McClune]

HI,

After Ryan, my son, had his motorcycle accident back in 2000, he could no longer us his left hand and ended up buying a one handed keyboard. He still uses it today.

Go to infogrip.com and look under BAT towards the middle of the page.

Ryan works in the computer field and this keyboard works very well for him.

Best of luck,

Hugs, Karen McClune
Karen@ubpn.org

[Heddip]

I use one hand across the keyboard. It has helped me to use a smaller keyboard so my hand doesn't have to move much to reach the keys.

I've gotten pretty fast this way.

Heddi

[LJSL0330]

Wow... I never knew there were one handed keyboards available. That is so cool!!

When I was in high school (way back in the dark ages of the 80s before the class was called "keyboarding" and was still "typing" on actual typewriters I saw an episode of M*A*S*H that gave me an idea. It was the one where the concert pianist losses use of one arm and thinks he'll never play piano again. The doctor gets him sheet music specially for one handed playing and he is still able to play.

So.....I asked the typing teacher if she would help me learn to type one handed. She very quickly told me there was "just no way" she could teach me.... because there were no books available for teaching one handed typing. (How did she know that immediately without looking?)

I never looked for manuals - this was before the internet where you can find almost ANYTHING. I just taught myself. I use my right hand mostly, but also use my left index finger for a few keys. (I am pretty fast and pretty accurate.) Computers have made it easier. My left index finger isn't strong enough to depress a typewriter key, but it can depress a key on a computer keyboard.

Repetition is the key to learning. Try having him type letters/emails to family and friends to get more practice. That way he won't have the deadline pressure like schoolwork would give him. That might help keep his frustrating level lower. But he will like find his own way to do it eventually. We OBPIers are pretty determined when we decide we have to figure out HOW to do something.

I really hope that with computers in almost every classroom now, more OBPI kids will learn to "type" more easily. It is definately a needed skill once you get to high school and college and have a ton of papers to write!

Lisa, 41
LOBPI

[Mardelle]

Hi...22 yrs TBPI I type 60 words per minute.
The best way to get your son typing is have him chat with his friends on MSN or Yahoo...he will be slow at first...but he will improve with practise. Like all other kids do his age. Throw the manuals in the garbage...it is something that is self taught. I still look at all the keys...95% of the time, accuracy are most important so he does not become discouaged.
Good Luck

[Carolyn J]

Lisa,
I had a one-handed typing book in the 1950's when I took a typing class at a local vocational school the summer before college...your High school teacher was LAZY!!!!!!!!
HUgs,
Carolyn J
LOBPI

[Dan]

Hi,

I guess I will be another voice saying, give him a keyboard and tell him go at it. I got hurt right when I was graduating High School and was in college three months later, I learned how to type really well when I had to pull an all nighter to get a paper done. The old comment, necessity is the mother of learning, was very appropriate for me. I just use the one hand and I do use all my fingers to cover the whole keyboard.

This subject came up a few months ago on the TBPI threads and I know there were lots of similar comments, but it was interesting because someone asked how many words per minute everybody typed. So I found a few online tests and was much slower than normal as I had to read the words and type, which is how they teach you, but not what my real experience is. I look at the keyboard most of the time also, but that is ok as I am not copying things to write and I know when I make an error just by the touch of the keys.

I am sure he will do great,
Dan

[claudia]

Carolyn:
My grandmother had a major stroke in the 50's and was paralyzed on her left side( pretty strange that Juliana is LOBPI, huh?)but wanted to go back to work as secretary for the City of NY. They told her she had to type as well as she did before the stroke or they wouldn't do it. She forced them to find someone to teach her to type one-handed...and they did!! So SOMEONE out there knew how to do this...

it is sooooo easy to just say NO to something that is out of our comfort zone.

oh, and my grandmother typed FASTER after the stroke and worked until mandatory retirement age!

claudia