Typing Fluencies of 12–13-Year-Old Students with Dyslexia and Peers with Typical Development

Abstract

Several factors can impede the writing process of students with dyslexia. One recommended adjustment to help them overcome these writing challenges is the use of personal computers for writing. The research underscores the significance of effective keyboarding skills in optimizing the benefits of computer-based writing for these students, with touch-typing being the frequently recommended typing technique. Although research findings point to various reasons that indicate that students with dyslexia may face difficulties in developing fluent touch-typing skills, we found a lack of research in this area. In order to address this gap, in our study we examined and compared 12–13-year-old Slovenian students with dyslexia and their typically developing peers in terms of their existing, self-taught typing technique fluency, the fluency achieved in learning touch-typing and the fluency achieved in learning a simple finger-typing task. We found a significant difference between handwritten and self-taught typing fluency of students with dyslexia, with handwriting being a more fluent form of transcription. The results of students with dyslexia are significantly lower from their peers in handwriting fluency, self-taught typing fluency, touch-typing fluency and simple finger-typing task fluency. However, the learning trends for touch-typing and the simple finger-typing task do not differ between the groups of students. We comment on the differences found and make suggestions when considering typing as an additional or alternative transcription mode.