How Long Should Kids Practise Typing Each Week?

Parents want a number: how many minutes, how many days? It is a fair question, and the honest answer is that no research we could find gives a proven figure for children. What we can do is explain what the sources do and do not show, and suggest a routine that fits normal family life.

Is there a set number?

No. The NSW syllabus says what students should learn about typing, such as the keyboard layout, accuracy and rate goals, but it does not say how many minutes a week to spend. Schools decide how and when to teach it, and we could not find research that sets a recommended duration for children at home. The advice below is therefore a sensible starting point built from how children learn and from comfort guidance, not a prescription.

A reasonable first plan is three or four short sessions a week of about ten to fifteen minutes for children in Years 3 to 6, and shorter, playful ones for younger children. That adds up to roughly thirty to sixty minutes a week. Adjust it to your child's energy, the school term and what else is on.

What does the research say?

Two honest answers. First, the study that set a commercial structured programme, Keyboarding Without Tears, against free online activities for students in Kindergarten to Year 5 found that both approaches improved speed and accuracy and the structured one improved more. It does not tell us the best number of minutes, only that guided practice over a school year moved the numbers.

Second, the research on adult typists suggests that practice quality matters. Aalto University researchers who studied 30 adults found that high performance was linked to a clear key-to-finger mapping, preparing the next keystroke and small hand movements. Those are habits, and habits are built by repetition done carefully, not by long stretches of tired practice.

So the evidence supports regular, careful practice, and stops short of naming a duration.

Why short and regular is a sensible bet

• Children tire quickly. Fatigue leads to sloppy keystrokes, and sloppy keystrokes build the wrong habit.
• Regular beats rare. Four ten-minute sessions fit into a week more easily than one long one, and the skill is revisited more often.
• Comfort needs breaks. University guidance on children's computer use (a Cornell page that appears to date from around 2000) says to cap unbroken screen stretches, whether by glancing at the clock or with break-reminder software. It does not give a number of minutes.

A sample weekly routine

Note that this routine is our advice rather than research.

For a child in Years 3 to 6, something like this is realistic:

For Kindergarten to Year 2, shorten the sessions and make them playful: two or three keys, a few tiny words and an early finish. Our guide to typing for Kindergarten to Year 2 has ideas.

What should each session include?

A simple structure helps a child know what to expect:

1. Warm up (two minutes). Type a line of keys already learned, slowly.
2. New material (five minutes). Add one new group of keys or a new word list.
3. Accuracy check (three minutes). Type a short passage and count the mistakes.

The NSW Stage 2 syllabus expects students to track their own goals for accuracy and rate, so a quick check at the end of each session is in the spirit of what schools ask. For why accuracy comes first, see accuracy before speed.

How should sessions change as children grow?

Younger children (Kindergarten to Year 2) do best with very short, playful sessions of around ten minutes, because their hands are small and their attention is brief. In Years 3 and 4, when the syllabus begins to ask for goals on accuracy and rate, ten to fifteen minutes with a short accuracy check suits most children. By Years 5 and 6 children are expected to type more efficiently and use shortcuts, so a slightly longer session that mixes drills with real writing can work. Teenagers who already type reasonably well may only need an occasional refresher, or practice aimed at a particular weakness such as numbers and punctuation.

These are suggestions drawn from how the syllabus builds, not findings from a study, so adjust them freely.

What if the schedule falls apart?

It will, sometimes: holidays, sport, illness. A missed week is not a disaster. Restart with a short review session of keys already learned and return to the routine. Do not try to make up lost time with a marathon. And if practice has become a daily argument, take a break and talk with your child about what would make it easier.

How do you know it is working?

Keep a simple record of the date, the accuracy and the speed from the same kind of passage. Compare your child with their own earlier numbers, not with other children. If accuracy is climbing, you are on track. If it has stalled for several weeks, check the basics: posture (see typing posture for children), the set-up and whether the passages are too hard.

A calm next step

XType breaks the course into short staged lessons, adds arcade-style typing games for variety, and gives parents a chart of speed and accuracy over time so you can see progress without asking your child to demonstrate. A quick look is free with the 30-second typing test, and the course itself is a 7-day free trial, then A$9.99 a month or A$99.90 a year, cancel any time. Want a taste first? For more, see how to teach a child to touch type.