Animal Typing

What is Animal Typing?

Animal Typing teaches kids how to touch type and then provides them with lots of practice exercises as it monitors their progress.

In this review of Animal Typing, you will see how well the app meets its aims of increasing the keyboard-based productivity of those who stick with its lessons.

What we love about Animal Typing?

Most educational apps fit into just a few categories, so it is great to see an app address a skill that is not well served. In this case, that skill is touch typing. 

Animal Typing provides effective tuition and useful practice in learning to touch type. It does so in a child-friendly package with plenty of options.

Whatever keyboard users favour, (DVORAK and AZERTY, for example) this app can match their preferences. The lessons are available in multiple languages and there are two sets - one for young students and one for older students. There are even extra lessons for bringing in the numeric row of the keyboard and special symbols.

What skills does it improve?

Typing is a skill that is used daily by many people, both for work and personal reasons. Most people have picked up their typing method without tuition or thought, but, with a little effort, their efficiency could grow. Watching someone who can touch type is a revelation for those of us still pecking away at the keyboard using just a few fingers and a sloppy technique.  

Typing Animals offers the chance for children to develop an efficient typing technique before their slow, bad habits are too deeply embedded.

The app shows players what to do. Where the user's fingers should be placed and which ones are used for which keys, are shown on the screen. The racing animals shown in cartoon form on the screen set a good pace and reflect the user's speed and accuracy. Users don't need to rely on their literacy skills as the app tells them what to type. In fact, watching the screen acts as a good reminder that the touch typist does not look at his/her fingers.

What age is it appropriate for?

Animal Typing is suitable for anybody who is old enough to commit to learning a new and useful skill. The children's lessons are great and they can move on to the standard ones later. Older students can jump straight on to the standard lessons. 

Is Animal Typing easy to use?

How will students benefit?

Learning to touch type for those who have long worked without the skill is difficult. Old habits die hard, and a person's typing speed will reduce as they begin to unlearn their poor technique and learn a better one. Young students who take the time to practice with this app will have the reward of a shallower learning curve and the advantages of being able to type quickly and with little cognitive load.

How will teachers benefit?

In the classroom, each student can take their first steps to touch-type on this app at different times as it allows multiple users each to have a discrete profile on the same device. Further practice can take place on both the app and when doing other computer-based work.

How will parents benefit?

Animal Typing has a design that appeals to children and touch typing's emphasis on speed and accuracy makes it feel like quite a game-like activity. It will provide an interesting mix of game and skill development that some children will really appreciate.  

Parents will know that they have provided their children with the opportunity to develop a useful skill for wherever their child's future learning takes them.

What Animal Typing can improve on?

The main obstacle to using Animal Typing to its best is its hardware requirements. This is unavoidable and cannot be improved on but you should be aware of the requirement before buying the app. In addition to the app and mobile device, you will need a physical keyboard.  

The app can be used with the on-screen keyboard but it is far from ideal. The feel, spacing and response of real hardware keys are needed. If you already have one that you connect to your device, it will work with this app.

Animal Typing's website is sparse. This is a shame as this app feels like it could be the centrepiece of a larger touch-typing skill resource for children. Some useful tips pages, instructional videos, even printable certificates that parents and teachers could award to children would really enhance an already good product.

How much does Animal Typing cost?

The skill Animal Typing teaches is a life-long one that needs plenty of carefully designed practise exercises to develop. Animal Typing is not a cheap app but it is addressing a skill others have not attempted and it is well made with lots of content. 

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

There is a lite version of Animal Typing available. It has far less content than the main version but works well as a trial. You can choose to expand it using in-app purchases to add just the standard lessons, just kids lessons, or all of them. The full package is the best value and the same experience can be had by buying the premium version of the app outright. 

Is Animal Typing safe to use?

Animal typing does not contain any advertisements nor any content that is unsuitable for children. Student's profiles are stored only on the device.   

Overall rating

Animal Typing is to be applauded for offering something different. It is easy to think that typing does not need special tuition but think about how often you miskey a letter or have to turn your eyes away from text to find your place on the keyboard. Then think about how often people need to type each day and how typos can make or break important communications. 

Those who can touch type are accurate, fast, and don't need to look where their fingers are. They won't be cringing as they look at their errors in a poorly written email. 

It is fair to say that most people would benefit from being able to touch type but as a skill like any other, only those who persevere will achieve its mastery. If you think your child will stick with it, Animal Typing is a great way to help them develop a skill that they will soon come to take for granted but will benefit from enormously.

Alternatives

Typing.com

EduTyping

You may also like:

Animal Games for Kids

You can download Animal Typing on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the Animal Typing app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

You can download Animal Typing on your Windows devices from the Windows Store.