Rachel, Parent of a child with neuromuscular difficulties and autism
My son has been using Touch-type Read and Spell for at least five years. He finished the main course a while ago but enjoys the program so much he is now working his way through the mathematics and science subjects. He likes that it’s not a babyish program and that there’s a predictable pattern to TTRS lessons. Once he sets off on it, he needs no input from me and can work independently.
Tim struggles with a hereditary neuromuscular condition which makes it hard for him to write by hand, so being able to learn the skill of touch-typing has been really important for him. Typing is less limiting and allows him to get his ideas out faster. In the beginning, he would only be able to do one or two modules a session and his hands would ache. But thanks to regular practice, he’s built up the muscle tone he needed in his hands and has found it’s helped with handwriting using a pen too.
We originally started TTRS at home because school wasn’t going well (Tim became a ‘school refuser’ in Year 5). He struggles with autism and the format of the course is really well suited to him. If it’s the machine and not a human telling him what he’s gotten right or wrong, somehow, it’s easier for him to take the feedback.
My son is a bit of a perfectionist and will often do a lesson over and over again until he gets a score he’s happy with. A friend of mine made a hand cover so I know he’s not looking down when he types. Tim once said to me he knows when he’s made a mistake because he can feel it in his fingers!
Since he began TTRS, Tim’s spelling has improved, he’s grown his receptive vocabulary and the vocabulary he will use in his speech and written work has improved. It’s also helped him with his enunciation, as he was in speech and language therapy when he was a young child. Moreover, he understands more about how websites work and how to navigate other programs and change the settings to make text more readable and interfaces more suitable for him.
Personally, I think all special schools should offer TTRS in England because it doesn’t just teach typing and spelling. It’s so much more than that. TTRS has given my son self-esteem and confidence that just wasn’t there before. Here’s a child who they told me had no application and no concentration and I can see him sitting there at the kitchen table just working away.
I can remember he was so proud when he first went into school and showed off his TTRS certificate. Some of his teachers can’t even touch-type and he was able to demonstrate his typing skills in front of them and his peers. It’s just such an amazing set of outcomes for such a simple product!
