Sheryl, Parent of an 11-year-old with dyslexia

I have a son who is dyslexic and I was doing some British Dyslexia Association tutor modules when I ran across mention of the Touch-type Read and Spell program.

At that time my son was really struggling with reading and spelling, and while we weren’t looking for a typing program as such, we expected that as a dyslexic student he would need to do a lot of word-processing, and that being able to type efficiently would benefit him.

We liked the TTRS approach because it was teaching phonics and spelling at the same time. Also, my son had some experience with other typing programs, but as he’d just turned 11, he wanted something a bit more grown up and TTRS was a good fit for that.

My son does his TTRS typing lessons most weekdays. He’ll do five small modules a day. I ask him to complete three from the main course and then choose two from the subject-specific lessons in grammar, phonics, science, or maths.

He records which five he’s done and writes the date in on a spreadsheet that we use. Having this kind of an independent task to work on and being able to check off his progress gives him a real sense of completion. He even sometimes chooses to access TTRS from the computers in the school library.

Since starting the program, his confidence in typing has really increased. Almost all of the homework that my son does in year 7 is online or at the computer and he can now find his way around the keyboard much faster. He is set to become the fastest typist in the family!

We’ve noticed an improvement to some degree in terms of spelling too. Overall, I really like TTRS and consider it a great resource to have!