teaching keyboarding and mouse skills

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My boy (4) has had in ipad for 2 years now and is magnificently proficient at navigating through it's 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 with 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

As an industrial strength geek, I have to say it's really helpful to learn with the spacing of conventional keyboards, your son will doubtless be using all manner of technology outside of simplistic interfaces such as tablets or PCs. User friendliness is dangerously illusory.

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If he is getting any OT I would ask his therapist for suggestions on learning to use the mouse.

Maybe try playing with a drawing program to get the basics of clicking, holding, and moving?

Just wanted to mention that looking back, my son really wasn't able to use a mouse at age 4 but by age 5 it came together. You might see if the games on kneebouncer.com can be done with a mouse -- it used to be free, but now is a free trial + subscription. pbskids.org was another favorite at that age.

Hes 4?

I think it's way too early to worry. Sounds like hes ahead of the curve. Neaten up his printing? Honey my NT 4.5 year old can't print even one letter yet and she's in a pre K program.

I think it's way too early to stress. Sounds like he's ahead of the curve and theres no reason to push. I think that practice on a website he likes is probably all he needs to get to where he's using the mouse properly. Find some fun websites and let him explore them. That is probably all it will take to get him to master the mouse and get interested in the keyboard.

We are using KwT because we are using the handwriting program. It came cheap in a bundle, so we figured, "why not?" We are on the 4th grade program so the mouse skills part was just a very small portion in the beginning. I don't know what the younger programs look like, but I would assume they send more time on mouse skills at the younger ages.

My son loves the 4th grade version.

I understand that keyboarding without tears has units set by age group, so I think that program could be a good option. If there isn't a unit for his age, then he simply is too young.

Understand that there is a lot of developmental readiness involved in learning how to keyboard, and 4 years old isn't going to have that. Your son should be able to learn some simple moussing skills and a few basic keys, but it will be a long time before he is truly keyboard ready. The OT my son had did not deem him ready to learn to type (as in really type) until he was in 6th grade. Before that he played around with keyboards and introductory lessons, but didn't do much more.

I wouldn't push him on it. When there are age appropriate programs he wants to use that can only be accessed by keyboard and mouse, he will have the motivation to figure out what he needs to.

My son lives on his computer, btw and is an excellent touch typist. But most of that progress started from middle school forward. Before that, it was a little moussing and the occasional hunt and peck typing and that was it.

Somehow this thread has split into two.... I posted a more detailed reply on the other one I think.

You might consider getting him a label maker that has the standard keyboard layout. It would get him used to finding the letters withou worrying about the screen. My 4yo twins love making labels. They have them at Target for about $20.