Peer-reviewed research
Tracing the Development of Typewriting Skills in an Adaptive E-Learning Environment
Maaike van den Bergh et al., Perceptual and Motor Skills, 121(3), 727-745, 2015 · DOI 10.2466/23.25.PMS.121c26x6
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A longitudinal study of 62 children, average age 12.6, learning to touch type on an online course. It modeled 1,091,707 keystroke latencies and tracked two skill loops, the finger movements that regulate single keystrokes and the words typed per unit of time.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed, with a large number of keystrokes. It is a single course with children who were learning from scratch, and it tracks a curve from the start of training, not adults who are plateaued. The plateau is inferred from the shape of the fitted curves.
Facts taken from this source
- In a 2015 longitudinal study of 62 children on an online touch typing course, the developmental curves plateaued sooner for the inner loop, the finger movements behind single keystrokes, than for the outer loop, words typed, so the inner loop seemed to need less practice to develop.
“the inner loop seemed to require less practice to develop than the outer loop” (Abstract)