Fluency Applied to Writing: Handwriting and Typing

Part of the reading academies this summer addressed fluency. In our sessions, some of us started talking about the connection between fluency and handwriting. I started looking for some guidance and found some interesting research.

When kids compose, their handwriting and typing speed can inhibit their ability to transfer their ideas onto paper. Here are some important principles I learned:

• Find out how fast kids can copy information. There is a limit to how fast people can copy information. The fastest speed that they can copy information legibly should follow these rates: 
• 1st - 5 words per minute
• 2nd - 6
• 3rd - 7
• 4th - 8
• 5th - 10
• 6th - 12
• 7th - 14
• 8th - 16 (Amundson, 1995). 
• The faster you can copy, the more room you have in working memory to process thought. So kids who have trouble with automaticity and fluency in handwriting or typing can negatively impact the content of their writing. 
• Kids in 4th grade typically compose using handwriting at 4-5 words per minute. By the time they are in the 9th grade, they compose using handwriting at 9 words per minute (Graham, 1990). Most adults compose at about 19 words per minute (Karat, Halverson, Horn, Karat ,1999).
• If kids can type at least 10 words per minute, that seems to match handwriting speed pretty closely. That means that if they type slower than that, typing actually makes it harder to compose. I think that should mean that kids should reach a benchmark in typing speed before being allowed the privilege of using the computer to compose. (Excluding assistive technology use.) If you can't type as fast as you write, you're going to be frustrated. 
• Handwriting ability and keyboarding ability are NOT associated. In other words, if you have good handwriting it doesn't mean you can type well or not. BUT, kids should learn the basics of handwriting before learning to type. A concentrated focus on typing then, should probably begin after kids learn to write in cursive - my opinion. 
• When composing, most adults who type can produce between 10 and 18 words per minute (Foulds, 1980). Most 5th and 6th graders who can type well usually compose at about 6 words per minute (Graham, Harris, MacArthur, and Schwartz, 1991).   So 10 words per minute minimum seems like a good benchmark for deciding how fast kids should be able to type before begin asked to compose on the computer. Again, my opinion.
• Most research suggests that effective use of software requires a baseline of about 20 words per minute. 
• Some suggest that typing speed should be 2 to 3 times faster than handwriting speed. 
• Boys tend to type slower than girls, but almost catch up by 8th grade (Honaker, 2003).
• Most of the businesses that I looked at online require at least 30 words per minute. The ability to type 40 words per minute is considered an average typing speed. Professional typists have averages above 65 to 75 words per minute. Some people think most of the population doesn't have the finger dexterity to type above 50 words per minutes. So, looks like we should have kids typing between 30-40 words per minute by the 8th grade. 
• The technology apps for 6, 7, and 8th grade don't mention a specific speed. 
• The fastest anyone ever typed is 216 words per minute! 

Link to Resource with charts

Link to Standards document that might be useful in curriculum development and integration of these ideas.

Review of Literature 

Another review for handwriting speed

An assessment you can use

References:

Amundson, S.J. (1995). Evaluation tool of children's handwriting. Home, AL: O. T. Kids.

Foulds, R. A. (1980). Communication rates for nonspeech expression as a function of manual tasks and linguistic constraints. Proceedings of the International Conference on Rehabilitation Engineering. Toronto.

Graham, S. (1990). The role of production factors in learning disabled students' compositions. Journal of Educational Psychology. 82, 781-791.

Graham, S., Harris, R. K., MacArthur, C., & Schwartz, S. (1991). Writing and writing instruction for students with learning disabilities: Review of a research program. Learning Disability Quarterly. 14, 89-114.

Graham, S., Beringer, V., Weintraub, N., & Schafer, W. (1998). Development of handwriting speed and legibility in grade 1-9. Journal of Educational Research, 92(1), 42-52.

Karat, C., Halverson, C., Horn, D., Karat, J. (1990). Patterns of entry and correction in large vocabulary continuous speech recognition systems. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '99). New York, NY: ACM. pp. 568-575. doi: 10.1145/302979.303160.