Keyboarding Curriculum · Grades K–5

Keyboarding Without Tears

Digital keyboarding curriculum teaching typing skills to elementary students from kindergarten

Owned by: Learning Without Tears (Independent)

Starting at K
Keyboarding instruction begins kindergarten
K–5
Grade range at LMSD
Independent
Learning Without Tears — no firm/VC
OT-informed
Occupational therapy approach to fine motor skills

Keyboarding Without Tears (KWT) is the digital companion to the popular Learning Without Tears handwriting curriculum. It teaches keyboard familiarity and typing skills to elementary students beginning in kindergarten. Learning Without Tears is an independently operated company, and its materials are generally considered high quality by occupational therapists and educators. The central concern for parents is not primarily data — it is developmental: teaching a 5-year-old to type before they have mastered handwriting raises legitimate questions about neurological development, fine motor skill prioritization, and the pencil-first principle.

The Full Picture

The Good

  • Developed by the same team behind the highly regarded Handwriting Without Tears curriculum — OT-informed approach
  • Keyboarding is a genuinely necessary skill for standardized testing (PSSA/Keystone are computer-administered) and college
  • Independent ownership — no firm or advertising pressure
  • Multisensory approach incorporates physical keyboard awareness before screen-based typing
  • Teacher dashboard shows typing speed and accuracy progress over time

The Bad

  • Beginning keyboarding instruction in kindergarten, before handwriting is consolidated, may interfere with the neurological development that handwriting supports
  • Screen time for the youngest students in the district (kindergarteners) is the most developmentally concerning use case
  • Typing speed as a metric creates performance pressure in young children around a skill that should develop naturally with maturity
  • Time spent on keyboarding is time not spent on handwriting, drawing, building, or other fine motor activities with greater developmental value at ages 5–7
  • Digital keyboarding practice displaces the cognitive-motor integration benefits of pencil-and-paper work

The Worse

  • Research on handwriting (Longcamp et al., 2005; James & Engelhardt, 2012; Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014) consistently shows that handwriting activates neural pathways for reading, spelling, and memory that typing does not — prioritizing typing instruction before handwriting is consolidated reverses this developmental sequence
  • Teaching kindergarteners to type communicates that the keyboard is the primary writing instrument — a message with long-term consequences for how these children relate to writing as a cognitive activity
  • A 5-year-old who is still developing the pincer grasp and letter formation should not be competing with a typing speed goal

Privacy Deep-Dive

Ownership

Learning Without Tears — independently operated; not firm or VC owned

Data Collected

Student login, typing exercises completed, typing speed (WPM), accuracy rates, time on task

COPPA

School-managed accounts; no personal accounts for students under 13

Data Sharing

Limited sub-processor sharing; not sold

Parent Access

Teacher dashboard shows progress; no dedicated parent portal

Privacy Policy

Available at learningwithoutteats.com — clear and straightforward for an independent publisher

Developmental concern: The evidence base for handwriting's cognitive benefits is robust and growing. Research by Virginia Berninger, Karin James, and others shows that handwriting — not typing — activates the neural circuits for reading and spelling formation. Introducing keyboarding before handwriting is mastered inverts a critical developmental sequence. This is the central concern with KWT, not data privacy.

What It Replaces in the Classroom

Kindergarten keyboarding on Chromebook
↓ on a screen
Pencil and paper — letter formation, drawing, fine motor development through handwriting
Typing speed drill
↓ on a screen
Handwriting fluency practice — the motor skill that actually supports literacy development
Digital keyboarding curriculum
↓ on a screen
Gradual, age-appropriate introduction to the keyboard in grades 3–4 after handwriting is established
Screen-based fine motor practice
↓ on a screen
Manipulatives, clay, scissors, and other hands-on fine motor activities

Questions for the District

At what grade does LMSD begin formal keyboarding instruction with KWT, and how much time per week is spent on it?
How does LMSD balance keyboarding instruction with handwriting instruction, particularly in kindergarten and first grade?
Has LMSD consulted with occupational therapists about the appropriate age to begin keyboarding instruction?
What is the district's position on the research showing handwriting activates different (and educationally valuable) neural pathways than typing?
Can families request that their young child's keyboarding time be replaced with additional handwriting practice?

Sources

  • Keyboarding Without Tears — learningwithoutteats.com
  • James, K.H. & Engelhardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education.
  • Mueller, P.A. & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard. Psychological Science.
  • Longcamp, M. et al. (2005). Influence of the visual presentation of writing direction on the subsequent reproduction of letters. Neuropsychologia.
  • LMSD COPPA Vendor List — lmsd.org

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