Does anyone have any evidence or anecdotal stories of improved typing speed at an older age? I'm looking around the office and seeing a bunch of slow typing speeds and I'm curious about the chances of improving them.

What do you think about 40, 45 or 50 year olds becoming faster at typing? I'm not attempting to help the 60's+ - they are where they are!

I've always typed relatively fast since high school - - now late 30's in the 80 WPM range consistently.

I did not know how to touch type when I left college. I was a two-finger hunt-and-peck'er.

I found a DOS-based (this was 1989 or so) program called Typing Tutor. It would display letter combos for me to type.


CDCDCDCDCD

DEDEDEDEDE

TFTFTFTFTFT

etc.

Eventually the complexity and difficulty increased to 3, 4, 5 letter combos, and then words and passages. I stuck with it for a month or two, and have ever since been a pretty fast typer and almost never have to look at the keyboard. Sometimes I do for numbers and punctuation, but that's it. I sometimes wish I could find that program again... I'm sure there's a web-based equivalent, though. Just encourage some self-paced training for the folks you want to improve.

several likely options in Google results for "learn touch typing online"

one being - https://www.typingclub.com/

Switch to meme and gif methods

I learned in middle school on a simple typing program + a little box that slid over the keyboard, so you couldn't see the keys.

I run across this a lot and find you have a couple of common issues. 1) Not knowing how to type properly. 2) Typing slowly.

1) There are a lot in the "Ok Boomer" age that have never had proper training in how to type and use a form of 1-4 finger hunt and peck typing. They can sometimes be pretty good at it but you'll never be fast at typing if you aren't using the proper method. I think any of the common typing programs that teach home row keys would introduce them to the fundamentals that they need to eventually get to proper typing.

2) The only way to learn to type quicker is practice. If you don't put in your 10,000 hours it just isn't going to happen so if they don't type out pages of material every day then they will need to supplement that extra keyboard time somewhere else.

I took typing classes in all aspects of school but the thing that turned me from a "hunt and peck" typer to a "both hands home keys no look" typer was spending hours and hours everyday chatting with friends on AIM. It was a slow process but eventually you learn where the keys are and you naturally start using the home keys and eventually don't need to look at the keys anymore. I'd suggest finding a chat room or forum of something they are passionate about or possibly writing stories or essays to get that keyboard time in.

It won't be easy but it is an investment that is worth the effort if you want to be valuable in the job market.

https://www.keybr.com/

So has anyone done it or seen it done at 40 or older?

One of them at 40 yo, who I thought might have been the best is at 45 WPM... I'm worried about what I will find from the others. I wonder why they haven't sent me their results from the 1 minute typing test?

After about 6hrs from when I sent the link to take the test, I asked several about finishing - they all said they were busy all day... well, yeah, typing 20 WPM will keep you busy all day

Yeah, I'm not sure why this is even a question.

If they actually ran through some exercises, or simply had a workload that required them to type more, they'll get faster.

Fun game to hone your typing skills Galaga'ish:
https://zty.pe

What line of work is this? Is their writing good enough that you actually want them to get faster at it?

m-walker said:

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Premium said:

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I've always typed relatively fast since high school - - now late 30's in the 80 WPM range consistently.

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Shut up. Mavis Beacon doesn't even type that fast! I learned to type fast in Middle School out of necessity with so many AIM chats going at once time.

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Surely this is a joke, 80 WPM is adjusted for typos when copying words on a screen. I'm sure it's 100+ if I'm typing from my thoughts...

But I do agree, the AIM chats I had in college helped a ton - from 2001-05...

m-walker said:

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Premium said:

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I've always typed relatively fast since high school - - now late 30's in the 80 WPM range consistently.

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Shut up. Mavis Beacon doesn't even type that fast! I learned to type fast in Middle School out of necessity with so many AIM chats going at once time.

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AIM and MMO chats are how I learned to type

AIM

rhutton125 said:

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AIM

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Same. I think a big chunk of my generation learned to type quickly because of AOL Instant Messenger.

The moral of the story is that a person has to have something that makes them WANT to learn to type faster, just like anything else.

Just pick up any typing game and work towards betting your personal high school. You will teach yourself in no time

40s, never learned to type. My day to day is 90% excel spreadsheets. Sure id like to be able to type faster, but not that interested in putting in the effort/practice. So it's a novelty i guess. Once im off the clock, its 100% touchscreen keyboards

I could type fastest in my 30s. The executive secretary where I worked couldn't believe how fast I could type.

But all those years of typing have not been good for my hands and I'm noticeably slower now.

Excel requires a lot of keyboard literacy to be efficient. Maybe you should give it a go.


As an aside:
Suggested to a coworker today that a typing test should be given at the time of interviewing as a stand in for basic computer literacy, because if you can't type reasonably fast (60 WPM) I doubt you're very efficient on a computer in most aspects.

Just hire a cute girl who flirts with them on IM. They'll learn to type quick.

Just took a speed test and hit 50 wpm. Guess that's slow, but speed isn't really that big a priority as long as my patient reports get done.