Articles for parents

Longer pieces for the grown-ups, written from the papers. Every claim has a citation, and where the evidence disagrees with itself we say so. Alongside them are short how-to guides for a first session and for when typing does not work, written from the site itself.

• Published 2026-10-27

  Typing practice not working? Check the screen, the input mode and the keyboard

  When a child presses keys and nothing happens, the cause is usually one of five things: no lesson open yet, the input method on, a setting still selected, a different key expected, or a sound problem mistaken for a typing one. A checklist for parents.

• Published 2026-10-27

  A child's first sentence-typing session: a practical checklist for parents

  Help a child choose a lesson, press the first key and finish one short sentence. A first-session checklist with no speed target, using the screens the lessons actually show.

• Published 2026-10-27

  US or JIS keyboard? Match your layout before practising English sentences

  Site language, input mode and keyboard layout are three different settings. How to tell a US keyboard from a JIS one, what the Keyboard buttons change, and which symbols move between the two.

• Published 2026-08-29

  How long should children practise typing? What the evidence does — and does not — show

  What a classic typing study of adult postal workers can — and cannot — tell us about a child's practice time, what the wider research on spacing adds, and a practical way to choose a routine your family can keep.

• Published 2026-08-29

  Screen time explains 0.4% of a teenager's wellbeing — less than wearing glasses

  355,358 adolescents, every defensible analysis run. What the screen-time evidence actually shows, how small the effects are, where the studies disagree — and the one thing none of them measured.

• Published 2026-08-29

  Self-taught typists using the 'wrong' fingers can be just as fast — what the research says matters instead, and what it cannot tell you

  Motion-capture on 30 adults found that self-taught typists using fewer fingers could match trained touch-typists. Three other things predicted performance — one of them is why a finger guide exists. What that adult study can and cannot tell a parent. Four studies, all linked.

• Published 2026-08-24

  Give a child a keyboard and their writing gets worse: what 300 children showed

  Typed compositions were rated two school years behind the same children's handwritten ones. Why that happens, what fixes it, and what the brain-scan headlines leave out — six studies, all linked.