Dance Mat Typing: Free Typing Games For Kids & Adults
Welcome to our free Typing Game website that helps you and your kids learn effective typing. We believe that motor skill is a great way to enhance your gaming experience. Our main vision is to improve keyboard typing skills in an easy, efficient, and fun way. The game has different gaming genres, mobilize the entire classroom to improve their keyboard writing speed and accuracy. Our students will learn the most important elements of touch-typing methods in this game, including hand gestures, muscle memory, and hand-eye coordination.
Let’s Make Keyboarding Fun?
We teach fun as well as finger position learning and read and writing, keeping in mind the children’s entertainment and learning process. Besides these basic skills, our easy and fun educational website also pays attention to teach essential grammar and spelling. We offer two different Typing Game, one BBC Dane Mat Typing Game for kids and the Typing Speed Test Game for adults. Both games will guide students on how to write the most common English words and spell them.
What is Dance Mat Typing Game
Dance Mate Typing is an interesting game in which you are easily taught through introductions, tutorials, and reviews of typing methods.
It has different levels and stages, so users learn how to type step by step, making it easy for them to get a touch-typing hang. Furthermore, different colorful cartoons make the game invective and easy to communicate with the player. The typing game not only teaches you how to make hand position but also teaches the right use of letter keys, capitalize words, and basic punctuation while maintaining your touch typing.
Like other forms of computer typing instructions, one student or the whole class can use Dance Mat Typing Game. This is a budget-friendly and time-saving way to learn typing because it’s completely free, and you don’t need to buy time-consuming software or setup.
If you are interested in typing, then this game is really effective for learning the right use of words. Otherwise, the game not efficient for those who not exciting to learn typing. The great thing about the Dance Mat typing game is that it can easily be a stand-alone station or divided into daily warm-up activities through the stage to help students get fluent with typing in other forms of digital production. For few students, repeating the game once or twice after initial completion will be of some importance, but it will be better for most students to move on to the bigger typing challenge after mastering the game.
Our gaming website has additional content that explains why it is important to learn to type. There are also links to other computing tutorials to learn more about computer science, internet safety, and more.
Typing Games for Kids
In this technological age, students must know how to type on the keyboard. This typing game is professionally designed for students and kids. Our typing game is very interactive and teaches you keyboard skills in a way that you will want to practice again and again. As they successfully complete each level, they will notice an enhancement in their accuracy, speed, and typing confidence.
With the technological enhancement, most communication platforms are being transformed into computerized systems. So, it’s essential to build your child’s digital literacy skills. Your child must have a keyboard to get started, an essential tool that most of us use, but many do not use it properly. By playing these interactive animated typing games, your child can gradually build up their keyboard skills by maintaining proper hand positioning.
In the game first level, your child will learn the right use of home row keys, simple words forming, and getting comfortable using those keys quickly. Afterward, Students can mark the letters by looking up and down, writing long words, and testing their typing and spelling skills.
These games help to transform typing from a boring and tiring lesson to an exciting and interesting learning activity by turning the game keyboard into a tool for scoring points and winning. We offer both free and paid membership adventure, so you can go with a free basic membership plan in the beginning. Furthermore, you can upgrade your game to unlock our full digital literacy resources collection when your child is ready to achieve the next level of adventure.
Typing Games For Adults
Our keyboard gaming website is a perfect way to learn new skills quickly. Students are taught through various challenges at the appropriate times and are rewarded upon completion. Fun and motivating are an excellent way to make a keyboard lesson. That’s why we’ve turned each lesson of the game into a more interactive and interesting game by converting it into a WPM video game. A keyboard gaming website helps students practice their keyboarding skills by challenging them to work harder to reach each goal.
Our WPM is age-appropriate and achievable for students. Try choosing easy and simple gaming lessons for younger kids to make the goal small and easy to accomplish. While elder students can choose harder gaming lessons. The best key to encourage the students is to give positive feedback on each successful stage and give them several chances to try their highest wpm. The key to encouraging students to participate is to offer positive feedback and give them multiple opportunities to try to beat their highest WPM.
Why Do Children Need to Learn to Type Early Age?
Children start playing with mobile phones, laptops, and tablets at the age of 3-5. Soon after, they will start keyboarding at school. If they are not properly trained in the beginning, they usually start using a two-finger typing system, which may be very difficult to change after.
When Should Kids Start Learning to Type?
Touch typing is a basic skill that requires both time and a lot of practice. When kids begin to learn the keys quickly, they have a better chance of developing typewriting speed and accuracy. They can start keyboard typing learning early in the first grade, but their hands may be very small by the age of 7 or 8.
Keyboarding is a basic learning skill for all students. Why don’t kids enjoy typing together? We develop a free keyboarding website that will help kids to learn multiple innovative keyboard lessons. Each keyboard gaming app with a “choose keys to learn menu” can be tailored to meet their individual needs.
How to Plan A Fun Keyboard Training Lesson?
All teachers want to see their children’s keyboard skills and fast typing. Our gaming app is associated with different themes, interfaces, or strategies that make the game easy to play. Some typing videogames have different learning levels, from easy to hard. Differences between each level can help give students a goal to struggle with. It increased the kid’s interesting level and focused on the task at hand.
Learning the whole keyboard can be quite difficult. In the beginning, the fingers used in your typewriting should be limited. Our gaming website offers an opportunity to learn different parts of the keyboard simultaneously. Extended Home Row, Home Row, Upper Row, a collection of all letters and numbers, all letters, and 10 key options are the headlines of different courses. These headlines can be very helpful for teachers to guess about a real lesson plan.
At the beginning of the game, you learn the home row keys with our Dance Mate Typing Game, and then the game gradually turns from easy to difficult level. Once you have been trained to type each key separately, then you can start type words by playing Typing Attack and Typing Race. This bottom the up-learning process supports all kids.
Most online keyboarding websites have made some incredible advances in recent history, such as TypeMaster, TypeTestic, Type Trainer, BBC Dance Mate Typing, Typing Web, Type Quest, and more. Students have benefited from new innovations, and teachers have found useful tools to develop valuable keyboarding skills. Lessons from keyboarding practice today can be more interesting than ever in history! Now you can arrange a summer keyboarding camp every day.
How Touch-Typing Skill Is an Essential for Kids?
- 1. During typing, fingers will develop the memory muscle
- 2. Eye and hand coordination gets better
- 3. Improve English language skill
- 4. When kids are adults, many job opportunities welcome them
- 5. Increase typing speed per minute, accuracy, and efficiency
- 6. Typing gives an advantage to kids in education
- 7. A great alternative method for those students who have a problem with handwriting.
- 8. Enhance kids’ vocabulary and spelling words
- 9. Typing is a life skill that children never forget
- 10. Typing is an essential skill for the development of other skill of the kids
How Do I Increase My Typing Speed?
As you know, computers are being used in every field of life, and most jobs require at least basic computer skills. Most of the companies require candidates who are able to type at least a minimum of 35 wpm with complete accuracy. However, most companies take a pre-employment typing test and select candidates according to the typing test result. There are many websites available that taught how to type on the keyboard. Many websites teach you how to type on a keyboard, such as TypeMaster, TypeTestic, Type Trainer, Dance Mate Typing, Typing Web, Type Quest, etc. These websites help you to learn the basics of typing skills to get different job opportunities.
What is the Proper Typing Posture According to Ergonomists?
Do you have a typing issue? After using the computer all day, feels pain in your hands. It is due to Microtraumas that occur due to poor typing posture. Many RSI (repetitive strain injuries) are due to years of bad posture and the end of repetitive movements. When it comes to ergonomics and typing, Experts agree there are two ways of typing one is wrong and others are right. Here we’ll discuss in detail the proper typing posture that minimized debilitating issues such as finger strains and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Whether you are a parent or teacher, read this carefully and learn how the right posture can save students’ lifetime pain. However, proper posture and bonus at the keyboard also increase typing speed and accuracy.
Right Typing Posture According to Experts
According to the University of British Columbia and Cornwell University, the perfect typing posture is that when you are sitting, your keyboard is below your elbow’s height, and your wrist should be straight and not at desk level.
Follow the below instruction to achieve the perfect ergonomic and comfortable typing posture:
- Set your keyboard just below the elbow level.
- Your elbow should be in an open 90 to 110 degrees angle to relax your forearms and shoulders.
- The desk surface should be flat where you place the keyboard.
- Use an ergonomic keyboard or keyboard tray to achieve a negative tilt in your keyboard.
- Make sure your wrists straight, neither downwards or flexed upwards
- Avoid placing your wrists on a desk level for resting purpose, because it cut off blood circulation and puts pressure on your tendons.
- Use a footstool for feet comfort during typing, or make sure you keep your feet on the flat floor.
- When using a wrist pad, push it flush against your keyboard. However, it’s better to use it only to support your palms.
Most of the conventional keyboards have small legs to support the back end up and prop up the keyboard to create positive tilt. In this way, the back keys are easy to use, but in reality, it is detrimental that your wrists go to upward flexed posture at all times. Only when the positive tilt is innocent is the back of your seat prominent. A flat or negatively tilted keyboard has a more ergonomic sound in a straight or upright sitting position.
What is a Good Sitting Posture for Typing?
Do you know the right sitting posture for typing? It’s very important to sit properly for efficient typing. The (OSHA) Occupational Safety and Health Administration claims that perfect posture is most important to maximize your productivity and minimize the risk of work-related MSDs. Perfect keyboard typing sitting posture not only enhances your efficiency but also boost your respiratory system. According to the American Council on Exercise, poor posture compresses your thoracic region, and as a result, it decreases the level of energy and oxygen in your body.
Medica News provides right sitting positions in the below list:
- Resting your waist on the back of the chair for maximum support. If the chair does not provide adequate comfort, then use a lumbar pillow.
- Always keep your feet on the flat floor, make sure your thighs are parallel to the seat pan, and at your knees, your legs make a 90-degree angle.
- Look at the screen in a straight position without leaning forward. Because being forward exerts too much pressure on your discs, according to WebMD. So, your monitor position must be slightly below your horizontal eye level to avoid the hunchback posture.
If you have a back pain problem, then adjust your chair between 110 to 130 degrees. It will relieve you from neck pressure and back pain.
Is the Wrist Pad Good or Bad for Typing?
Whether the use of wrist pads is good or bad, it is under discussion among typists. The wrist pads proponents claim that it is really helpful to relieve pain and fatigue in the forearms, while others say that wrist pads put too much pressure on the wrist’s bottom.
Although most people compare wrist pads and palm rests with each other, but according to the ergonomists, these accessories are actually much better when used later to support your palms. In addition, you can also use it to relax your palms when you are not typing. Besides, wrist pads are much better for typing, but keep in mind some important tips for best practice:
- The better of using the wrist pad is that it flushes against your keyboard and uses it not for your wrist’s comfort but to cushion your palms. It helps to maintain the blood flow to the wrists and reduce the wrist extension.
- Your hand should be hovering just above the keyboard, not resting your wrist on the keyboard or wrist pad’s surface.
- Make sure you wrist in a neutral position so you can draw a straight line from the hand to the wrist.
- Use the wrist pad only as per need or in typing breaks.
What Are the Common Improper Typing Postures?
May you type in the wrong posture and not aware of it. Let’s check the below list of common scenarios:
- 1. Wrist Extension
- 2. Arm Extension
- 3. Closed Elbows and Shrugged Shoulders
Wrist Extension
Wrist extension is the most common problem in typing posture. When your keyboard is higher than your wrists, this problem is occurring.
How to Fix this problem: Lower your chair and raise your wrists up until your keyboard and wrists are on the same level. Maintain your straight position and neutral wrist to type accurately.
Arm Extension
This wrong posture occurs when the keyboard is too far away from you. As a result, your arms reach for it
How to Fix this Problem: Bring your keyboard closer to you and make sure your elbows keep a maximum of 110 degrees angle.
Closed Elbows and Shrugged Shoulders
It occurs when your keyboard is too close to your body, or your chair is too low, resulting in shrugged shoulders, closed elbows, and wrists flexion.
How to fix this problem: Increase your chair’s height and make an angle of 90 to 110 degrees at the elbow. Relax your shoulders and make sure they rotate outward, forming an inverted “V” shape with the keyboard. If you need to get this angle, consider a split keyboard.
Ergonomic Typing on the Laptop
Most people turn into digital nomads and look for the best desktop for a laptop for both play and work purposes. When it comes to ergonomic typing, laptops offer unique challenges because the laptops keyboards are usually always cramped, your wrists twisted horizontally, and your shoulders rotate internally. But finally, I got a laptop keyboard that is great for a long time working. Furthermore, the two things I did were really effective for my comfort.
1. Use An External Keyboard
An external keyboard could be a great ergonomic improvement that you can do in any laptop, whether at the office, home, or outside where you feel comfortable. A regular size external keyboard is more comfortable as compared to a full-size laptop. If you select an ergonomic keyboard with tenting and a split design and for regular use, this puts your arms and wrists in a more neutral position and opens up your shoulders when typing.
According to WebMD, during typing, your screen should be 25 inches faraway from your eyes. However, this is only possible when you use an external keyboard that maintains an optimal distance from your laptop screen.
2. Use a Laptop Tray
Ergonomists agree that the laptop screen should be positioned so that the screen’s top line at eye level. In this way, with your neck straight, you can look at the screen straight. In cases if you have to look downwards or upwards to see the screen, it increases levels of strain on the neck and makes causes neck and back pain. An average human head weighs 12 pounds, while people who work on laptops double the weight of a 15-degree forward incline in the neck.
The best way to achieve eye level with your laptop screen’s top line is to get a laptop tray that increases your entire laptop to eye level. You must use an external keyboard to maintain your laptop and set position, and get rid of the wrist, head, neck, and back pain.
Common Posture Problems While Typing
Poor posture can make cause computer-related injuries. However, common typing problems such as rounded shoulders to the neck, wrist strain, and shoulder pain affect the typing skill.
Problem: Wrist Strain
Solution: keep the wrists position straight when you type. Do simple hand exercises such as wrist extension and flexion periodically.
Details: Without resting and maintaining a flexed wrist, repetitive typing can be the main culprit for wrist strain. But other factors can cause this problem.
Recent research reveals that wrist pain is the most common RSI pain.
Typing on a keyboard moves the tendons on your wrist back and forth. These tendons are lie to parallel each other, so the back and forth movement creates friction, which is known as microtrauma.
To prevent the pain on your wrists, position your wrists in such a way that they appear to float horizontally in the air as you type. However, it’s a very important thing to avoid resting your wrist on the desk as you type. If you feel tired, you can use a palm pad to support your fleshy palm part, not your wrists.
Are you suffering from wrist pain? Use simple wrist exercise, according to doctors. Here we discussed some best wrist exercises:
Wrist Flexion and Extension Stretches
It’s very easy to do wrist extension and twist stretches and highly beneficial to increase your wrist mobility and rejuvenating your wrist joints after typing for a long time.
- Hold outward your arm with palm facing down
- Hold the fingers of the upper hand with your other hand.
- Gently pull your fingers upwards until you feel your wrists stretch.
- Hold on to this posture for 5 seconds and then release
- Gently pull your fingers downwards until you feel stretch on your wrist front side.
- Hold on to this posture for 5 seconds and then repeat the same exercise on the other hand.
Problem: Neck and Shoulder Pain
Solution: keep your neck straight while typing and stretch your upper body and neck every hour.
Details: Most people do not realize how much pressure they put on their necks and shoulders while typing until they feel pain.
Wrong sitting posture is one of the reasons for your neck and shoulder pain. If you keep your laptop far away, you force your shoulders to turn inward to reach the keyboard. Furthermore, If your screen is too far away, then you move your neck forward to see everything clearly on the screen. These bad postures can make a cause misalignment in your whole body and exerting excess strain on your neck, entire upper body, and shoulders.
How to Fix?
- Always sit with your straight shoulders and neck.
- Stretch your upper body after every 30 minutes.
For many people how have suffered neck or shoulder pain, the first solution they think of is painkillers or a pair of ibuprofen. But it is not a solution; a study reveals that performing shoulder and neck stretch exercises are more effective for relieving pain than take painkillers. Here are some of my favorite exercise:
1) Neck Relaxer
This is a great exercise to relieve your neck pain and increase the blood flow rate to that area and wake up early.
- Sit upright on the floor and planted your feet on the floor.
- Gradually lower your head to the right, trying to touch your ear to your right shoulder
- Hold on to this posture for 5 second
- Return to the first position and then repeat on the other side.
- Dron your chin down to touch your chest
- Come back to the neutral position of your head and then tilt backward the neck until you feel a stretch in the back
- Again back to the neutral position and rotate your head 360 degrees all around.
- Go back to the starting position
2) Overhead Shoulder Stretch
This exercise helps to break up stress in the neck, upper body, and shoulders all at once.
- Lift one arm straight up and bend it at the elbow
- Hold the elbow with your opposite hand
- Pull the right arm in the opposite direction and hold for 10 seconds
- Repeat on the other side
Other Ergonomic Typing Tips
Practice to Type Lightly
You do not need to use the wrong keyboard to register a keystroke. Some people consider the keystrokes won’t get registered if they’re not pounding those keys. But it is not true; typing with a heavy hand can cause you to expend unnecessary effort such as fatiguing your fingers.
Practice light and minimal typing with minimum effort to register the key.
Rest Your Fingers on the Home Keys
Your fingers’ position is as important as the position of your wrists and palms as you type; each of your fingers should be kept on a specific key in the home row of your keyboard. However, a standard keyboard layout is a QWERTY keyboard, which home row keys are A, S, D, F and J, K, L, ;.
Consider a Mechanical Keyboard
Most of the gamers and heavy typists prefer to use mechanical keyboards. Mechanical keyboard keys consist of physical switches that are lower resistant and more tactile as compared to a membrane keyboard. A mechanical keyboard is great for fewer finger strain and less depression and register. It is more productive and provides faster typing facilities.
Consider a Different Keyboard Layout
If you constantly feel pain in your hand and fingers when typing, you can try a different keyboard layout instead of the standard QWERTY keyboard. Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout help to improving typing accuracy and reducing muscle strains. The Dvorak Simplified keyboard’s home row includes the A, O, E, U, I, and H, T, N, S keys specifically designed to reduce the travel distance between fingers while typing. The Dvorak Simplified keyboard claim that it speeds up typing and lowers the RSI.
Key Takeaways
In terms of typing ergonomics, the key ways to maximize comfort and reduce RSI are:
- When you type, maintain a neutral straight position as much as possible.
- Maintain an open angle (90-110 degrees) to rest your shoulders and arms.
- Observe good sitting posture
- Use an external keyboard and mouse. Furthermore, a laptop stand is more essential for a laptop user to maintain eye level.
- Use a mechanical keyboard that is low force.