Does the typing task matter? Typing performance of university students with and without specific learning disorders, in copying and dictation tasks

Students with specific learning disorders (SLD) have difficulty acquiring basic learning skills such as typing (keyboarding), which has been shown to be less proficient compared to typically developed (TD) students. However, the research on typing in this population is limited, and is based mostly on a copying task, although students are required to perform various writing tasks. Additionally, most typing studies focused on speed or accuracy, and data concerning error-types committed is limited. This study compared the typing performance of students with SLD and TD in copying and dictation, which were administered to higher-education students, 35 SLD and 30 TD. The tasks were performed via keylogging software, while measuring typing speed, accuracy, and error-monitoring efficacy (EME), and analysing error types. Results showed that overall, the students with SLD typed slower and less accurately than their TD peers. Yet, whereas we did not find a task effect on the typing performance of the TD students, students with SLD typed significantly slower in the copying than the dictation task. Additionally, in both tasks, students with SLD had more substitution errors compared to the TD students, and more omission errors in the dictation task. The findings suggest that the typing performance of students with SLD may vary according to the typing task, in terms of their speed, accuracy and typing errors. These findings support the need for accommodations, as well as developing programs to improve the typing skills of students with SLD.