teaching keyboarding and mouse skills

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My boy (4) has had an ipad for 2 years now and is magnificently proficient at navigating through its programs and apps- it's really great and he plays mostly educational games and learns a tonne of stuff.
We are setting up my old PC in his room as I've signed up for one of those online home school programs and its interface doesn't work well at all on the ipad.
After the first disappointment in discovering that the computer screen is NOT a touch screen he's having a hard time using the mouse and we haven't really attempted any keyboarding yet. He has trouble looking at the screen while manipulating the mouse. Some of this is due to attention issues, some of it I think can be improved with lots of practice.

We are starting Handwriting without Tears to sharpen up his printing and it's going well and I see they have a Keyboarding or Typing without Tears program. Anyone tried it? Or any other programs that seem to work well to get little Aspies with attention and mild motor skills issues using keyboards and mice successfully?

I'm also going to spring for one of those keyboards that has bigger and fewer keys and that are separated by colour into sections.

Anyway, any ideas to get my boy happily onto the computer would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks as always

4 is really young for keyboard and mouse training; make sure you don't try to make him learn with adult sized peripherals. A child cannot learn to type effectively on an adult sized keyboard and trying will be frustrating. Same with an adult sized mouse.

Other than that, I don't have advice. I had a lot of fun with some typing programs when I was younger, but I didn't really learn to type effectively until high school when I started having to type essays; what really taught me fast typing, though, was when started playing World of Warcraft in groups with other players. It's type fast or "die" in that game lol

Thanks. 'I've ordered a special children's keyboard ans I'm trying to decide whether one of those big mice with a rolling trackball on the top would be better for him or just a child-sized mouse to fit his small hand that has clear and differentiated buttons (they have mice that look like frogs and they have big round raised eyes that serve as the buttons).
I don't plan on any intensive training, just introducing him to keyboarding- I think he'll think it it's really cool to be able type out his name and other words and see them on screen and printed out. A drawing program would also be neat for him as he is lately obsessed with drawing but mostly on a chalkboard.
I think for now the main thing will be learning how to use a mouse and just showing him some fun stuff computers can do.

He has in the past received OT... It wasn't good. But we did/do a lot of stuff that improved his gross motor skills which were a bit delayed. Gymnastics, swimming and just tons of time on playground structures got him to the point where his gross motor skills are so great now- he is riding his bike and scooter his coordination is pretty amazing compared to what it once was. We work a lot now on fine motor stuff at home and I try to do what I can for sensory integration.

I know computer skills and having an online presence can be life-saving for some of us here... My boy is still so young but I'm happy to introduce him to the world of PCs early since it will likely be a big part of his life and perhaps even something he may someday choose for a career.

Somehow this ended up splitting into 2 threads? Sorry if that's my doing.... Don't know how that happened!

We never bought a child-size keyboard b/c we did not teach typing especially young. We mainly started correcting him when he started typing like me instead of the right way. That was probably around your son's age.

We started using BBC Dance Mat, last year, (free on the Internet) and I know they taught keyboarding skills since at least 1st grade in school. This year we added Keyboarding without Tears, and he likes that, too. I think the main thing is just not letting them get into bad habits, early. My son is in 4th grade and types better than I do. He uses proper form, which is the main thing. I don't worry about speed as that will come. He types faster than me, anyway.

When they teach keyboarding skills in the early grades, is it touch typing, or just knowing where the letters are on the keyboard?

With so many things moving to tablets, I wonder if touch typing will continue to be as important. I'm a fast touch typist, but on a tablet I use a two-thumb variation of hunt-and-peck.

They start here in first grade where it is mostly here are the parts of a computer and keyboard and mouse. I don't think they did typing then. They mainly used the rest of the time for educational gaming. In second, they introduced touch typing, I think.

I don't text or do anything on a tablet, so I couldn't even teach that. The keys on a phone would be too small. It would be very frustrating. If we did tablet work, we'd end up having to get an attached keyboard, anyway.

I could never get the grasp of typing fast until I was about 12. I always used my index fingers to tap the keys out. I kinda made it into a game to see how fast I could type with them. Then I saw all the 'pro's' at things use all their fingers to type, and kinda forced myself to type with both hands and it came almost intuitively (that being said, I'm not the fastest typer in the world). Though I always think of the hands owning their respective sides of the keyboard, and then each finger owning certain keys. Maybe you could try that. You could also do "typing exercises" until he's got the hang of it (i.e. Letting him get a grasp on how he wants to type). I would probably not recommend starting out with a specialized children's keyboard becuase of the simple fact that once he gets tied to that, he has to learn how to handle keyboards of a smaller size. Unless he takes that around with him whenever he needs a computer.

A 4 yo definitely isn't ready to touch type! Point and click a mouse should be plenty at that age.