Educational devices using process-oriented methods are disclosed to prepare pre-school/school children, and teenagers for keyboarding. The devices include dual sets of hand/digit/phalange representations with indicia mounted thereon to provide pictorial and/or alphanumeric representations of a keyboard of arbitrary form and content. Such representations with indicia are adaptive to the growth and development, and preferences of the learner whether in the form of wearable devices embodied as gloves/digit-portions/rings, or non-wearable devices embodied as software-generated screen-displayed images, or as hardware implementations spanning planar and three-dimensional structures. The methods include a synergistic use of said representation with indicia through a curricular process where the student is given the opportunity to acquire psycho-motor skills needed for keyboarding while simultaneously learning the alphabet and the numbers, reading/writing and arithmetic, and self-expression through story-telling in various languages. Visual-motor memorization of the indicia on the wearable representations is enabled by the novel "Finger-Thumb Focused Touch" approach which self-empowers any individual, literate/illiterate, to learn reading, writing, or typing, away from the keyboard while walking, dancing, lying, or sitting, adaptive to one's age/condition/culture. This method of learning is further reinforced through game activities with the indicia of non-wearable hand/digit/phalange representations, and associative aids. The development of sensory-motor/mental associations between hands, digits, indicia, and characters, is further reinforced through the use of aids connected to keys mounted at the indicia on the representations.

A method of typing to reduce repetitive strain injuries comprises coordinating the movement of all moving parts from the shoulders to the fingers to avoid dissonant movement of any one part, starting with the hand and forearm in a natural profile. Each separately moving part is limited to movement to within its mid-range of motion. For speed, a finger is lifted and the hand is rotated to amplify the elevation. Conversely, lowering of the finger to strike a key involves rotating the hand in a reverse direction. The fingers are simply dropped, aiming at the top of the key to eliminate wasteful downward force and reduce finger-to-keyboard impact. Major movement of the fingers about the keyboard occurs simultaneously with upper and lower arm motion to eliminate stressful finger motions. A mouse manipulation method also employ the hand in a natural profile. An instruction methods for both the typing and mouse manipulation techniques teaches the student staring from the natural profile and moving in the mid-range of joint articulation.

A process of teaching the use of keyboards thereby enabling keyboard operators to produce large quantities of printed material in a much shorter time at higher accuracy. The process instructs keyboard students to associate printed material with four specific finger movements rather than keyboard memorization, thereby securing proficiency for keyboard students in as little as four hours rather than the usual six to thirty six weeks.

An educational device for teaching touch typing. The device includes a chart to be place in the view of the student and a series of overlays to be used on the individual student keyboards. The chart and overlays give the student the visual and mental impressions necessary to remember the location of individual keys without having to look at the keys.

A color-coded method and apparatus of learning to type is disclosed having three sets of flash cards which teach the location of keyboard symbols and the appropriate finger to employ a given symbol by the use of a predetermined sector-color-coded keyboard. The invention also includes adhesive backed colored appliques matching the sector-color-coding which can be removably applied to the fingers or another support to provide a means for initial learning of the method prior to practicing the method. Finally, the keyboard is covered with the color appliques according to the predetermined sector color code and a look-away image of the predetermined sector-color-coded keyboard is provided to prevent the user from looking at the keyboard while typing. This system can also be applied to other multiple finger actuated input devices.