Typing as a Writing Activity

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The above is an example of a writing activity for young children. It is my older son's attempt at a typed sentence. Typing activities can be a fun and useful change of pace from manual writing exercises. Children need manual writing practice as well, but in the early stages the focus is on the difficulty of the mechanics. Typing gives them a chance to work on sentence structure, capitalization, and spelling without worrying about the physical dexterity challenge that goes with handwriting.

Computer activities can kick-start learning for children who are fascinated with computing. They tend to learn fast if they're doing something exciting.

The idea of typing as a language arts activity came from the book Your Child At Play: Three to Five Years: Conversation, Creativity, and Learning Letters, Words and Numbers by Marilyn Segal. I recommend the book for an easy read about what's going on in preschoolers' minds and development. It has tons of easy suggestions for parents to try with their children, including the idea to let preschoolers play in word processing documents and even start an email account to correspond with friends and relatives. (Of course, parents should control all computer and online activity with kids, especially kids this young. I help my son send emails to his grandma, and that's about all we do with his account.)