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Typing Practice app review
Introduction
Typing Practice is an iPad typing game that teaches your child how to type more quickly by learning where the letter keys are. There is not a specific fingering technique, just letter memory.
Don't Let the Dinosaur Catch You
In Typing Practice, all you have to do is hit the correct letter key before the dinosaur catches you. Sounds easy? Wait until he gets faster! Easy level is nice and slow so I would suggest that parents have their child work on this level a few times before they get going on more difficult levels. I was able to complete Medium fairly easily, but I missed a few times and I am a pretty proficient typist.
The game tracks your mistakes to give you an accuracy rating, and then each time you get it wrong, you hit the rock letter and the dinosaur gets closer. Naturally, each mistake you make costs you time and therefore makes it more dangerous for your Caveman!
Levels menu
Learning, Yet Not
Typing Practice is a great game to play if you already have some basic typing skills. If, however, you are trying to instruct a new learner, then it would be best as a supplement. There are no fingering techniques taught, so your child is left looking at all of the keys, and the game will be very difficult until he or she has some basic one-finger typing going on. This is not an ideal skill though, and I will be searching for a good learn to type app to review.
What I do like is that it is very basic. Get it right: keep running, get it wrong and the dinosaur gets closer. This means extra motivation to get it right versus the typical typing exercises where your reward is a high accuracy rating only.
About to be chomped
Pros & Cons
Pros
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Easy to use
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Fun dinosaur-chasing Caveman
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Natural consequences for mistakes
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Does track accuracy
Cons
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No fingering technique given
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Hard level is quite hard as it was difficult for me
He got me!
Final Thoughts
Typing Practice is a fun iPad learn-to-type game, but it is more for practice than actual learning to type. You can learn letter placement, but there is no fingering technique taught. This means that the best you can achieve is a great one, two, or maybe a couple more finger-typing. While I know a lot of adults who only use one finger to type, it is not proficient, and I would discourage this style of typing strongly with the need to use keyboards only increasing rather than decreasing. Technology is a big part of our lives from texting to social media and work. It is an essential skill at this point, and this game gives the player some fun practice to brush up on his or her skills.