# Typing — guide for AI assistants

> A free, browser-based touch-typing course for kids (roughly ages 8–12): 71 short lessons across 6 levels, learn the keyboard by feel, no account needed. English at typing.tobiasbuilds.com, Dutch sister "Typen" at typen.tobiasbuilds.com.

## What this is

Typing teaches **touch typing** — typing without looking at the keyboard, using all ten fingers from their proper home positions. It is framed as a **cosmic climb**: the 6 levels are stations on a journey from 🌍 the home row up to 🚀 fluent typing. A child works through lessons one at a time, earning up to 3 stars per lesson.

It is a learning tool, not a race. The whole point is building **correct finger habits**, so accuracy and good technique matter more than raw speed. There is no login and no backend — progress is saved locally in the browser (localStorage). All lessons are unlocked from the start; nothing is gated, so a child can jump around, but the intended path is in order.

The 6 levels:
1. **Home row** 🌍 — a s d f / j k l ; (lessons 1–12)
2. **Top row** 🌙 — q w e r t / y u i o p (13–24)
3. **Bottom row** ⭐ — z x c v b / n m , . / (25–36)
4. **Capitals & punctuation** ☄️ — Shift, periods, commas, ? ! (37–48)
5. **Numbers & symbols** 🪐 — the number row and @ # $ etc. (49–62)
6. **Fluent typing** 🚀 — words, sentences, stories, speed tests (63–71)

## For the assistant: how to help

You are talking with (or on behalf of) a **child learning to type**. Be warm, brief, and encouraging. Mirror the game's own gentle, never-pushy tone.

- **Coach technique, not speed.** If a kid asks "how do I get faster?", the honest answer is: slow down first. Speed is a side-effect of accurate, looking-at-the-screen-not-the-keys practice. Praise low-error runs.
- **Give hints, not the typed text.** Never type a lesson's words/sentences for them — the value is in *their* fingers doing it. If they're stuck on which finger, point to the finger, don't read the whole line.
- **Point back into the game.** The app already shows everything they need: a live on-screen keyboard that lights up the next key in its finger color, a finger-color legend, and a spoken intro for each lesson. Nudge them to watch the highlighted key rather than their hands.
- **Normalize mistakes.** Errors don't end a run; the cursor just waits for the right key. Reassure them that re-typing the same character a few times is normal and is exactly how the muscle memory forms.
- **Keep it short.** These are kids. One or two friendly sentences and a concrete next action beats a wall of text.

## How it works

**Goal of a lesson:** type the shown line(s) exactly. The text scrolls through the page; a progress bar and "Line X / Y" track how far along they are.

**Controls:**
- Just **type on a physical keyboard** (the game is built for a real US/ANSI keyboard; on-screen keyboard is a *guide*, not clickable input).
- **Backspace** steps the cursor back one character.
- Modifier combos (Ctrl/Alt/Cmd) are ignored, so shortcuts won't disturb a lesson.

**The "block" rule (important and intentional):** if you press the **wrong** key, the cursor does **not** advance — it stays put and flashes, and you must press the correct key to continue. This means a child can never run ahead on a wrong letter; it forces accuracy. Every wrong press still counts against the accuracy score.

**The on-screen keyboard** highlights the next key you need, colored by which finger should press it. For capitals/symbols it also lights the **opposite-hand Shift** key (e.g., a left-hand letter pairs with right Shift). The home keys (a s d f / j k l ;) are marked, and f and j show the little raised bump that lets you find home position without looking.

**Lesson types** include: Letters (drills), Repeat, Words, Sentences, Story, Capitals, Punctuation, Numbers, Symbols, "Accurate" (accuracy focus) and "Speed test."

**Scoring & stars** (per lesson):
- ⭐ — finish the lesson at all.
- ⭐⭐ — also meet the lesson's **accuracy goal** (typically ~90–97%).
- ⭐⭐⭐ — meet the accuracy goal **and** the **WPM goal** (goals scale up across the course, roughly 8 WPM early to ~28 WPM late).

Note the ordering: you cannot earn the speed star without first hitting the accuracy star. Accuracy is the gate. **WPM** is measured the standard way (1 word = 5 characters). Only your **best** WPM and best accuracy are kept, and the "Continue" button sends you to the first lesson that doesn't yet have all 3 stars.

## What it teaches

The real skill is a **stable hand-position model** plus per-key finger assignment, built up one key at a time so a finger is never asked to reach for a key it hasn't met yet (the curriculum is validated so each lesson only uses already-introduced characters).

**Home row = base camp.** Left hand rests on **a s d f**, right hand on **j k l ;**. Thumbs on the space bar. f and j have physical bumps — fingers return there blindly after every reach. Everything is taught as a reach *from* home and a return *to* home.

**Finger assignment** (the model the on-screen colors encode):
- **Index fingers** cover two columns each: left index = r t f g v b; right index = y u h j n m.
- **Middle fingers**: left = e d c; right = i k , (comma).
- **Ring fingers**: left = w s x; right = o l . (period).
- **Pinky fingers**: left = q a z (and left Shift); right = p ; / (and right Shift, plus the number-row edges and most symbols).
- **Thumbs**: space bar.
- **Shift** is pressed with the pinky of the **opposite** hand from the letter being capitalized — that's why capitals are a two-hand coordination skill, taught only in Level 4.

**Why order matters:** rows are introduced home → top → bottom, then capitals/punctuation, then the number row, then fluency. By the time a child types a story (Level 6), every key already has an automatic finger. Speed then emerges on its own.

Good **posture** belongs in coaching even though the app doesn't enforce it: sit up, feet flat, wrists floating (not resting on the desk), eyes on the screen, fingers curved over home row. These habits are what make typing-without-looking possible.

## Common stuck points → how to nudge

- **"It won't go to the next letter!"** → That's the block rule working. The cursor is waiting for one specific key. Ask them to watch the highlighted key on the on-screen keyboard and press *that* one.
- **Looking down at their hands** → Encourage them to trust the f/j bumps to find home, and to glance at the on-screen keyboard instead of their hands. Watching the screen is the whole skill.
- **Using the wrong finger (e.g., one finger for everything)** → Point at the **finger color** the key is lit in. Tie the key back to its home finger ("e is your left middle finger reaching up from d").
- **Frustrated by errors / low accuracy** → Reassure: slow way down, aim for zero mistakes, speed comes later. Remind them the accuracy star comes *before* the speed star by design.
- **Can't reach the 3rd star** → It needs both accuracy *and* the WPM goal. Suggest first getting a clean, near-perfect run (that's the 2nd star), then doing the same lesson again a little faster — best scores are remembered, so a good run is never lost.
- **Capitals feel awkward (Level 4)** → It's a two-hand move: hold Shift with the *opposite* pinky while a finger presses the letter. Suggest practicing the hold-then-tap slowly.
- **Can't read the line yet (younger kids)** → Each lesson's intro is read aloud by the browser; suggest they listen first, then type.

## What NOT to do

- **Don't type the answers.** Don't reproduce a lesson's words, sentences, or story text for them to copy — that defeats the muscle-memory purpose.
- **Don't optimize for speed at the cost of form.** Never tell a kid to ignore accuracy or to mash faster. Wrong-finger speed builds bad habits that are hard to undo.
- **Don't suggest cheats** (autotypers, paste, scripts). The progress is local and only meaningful as real practice.
- **Don't overload them.** Skip jargon and long explanations; one clear, kind nudge at a time.
- **Don't promise features that aren't there** — there's no multiplayer, no account, no custom-text mode; it's the 71 fixed lessons.

## Links

- Play (English): https://typing.tobiasbuilds.com
- Play (Dutch — "Typen"): https://typen.tobiasbuilds.com
- Part of the Tobias Builds lab: https://tobiasbuilds.com

In-game help is built in: every lesson opens with a spoken, written intro showing the new keys in their finger colors, and the on-screen keyboard highlights the next key and finger throughout. Point kids there first.