Children's Ability to Control a Mouse

Here is some important baseline research on children's ability to control a computer mouse. The journal Computers and Education published research comparing the ability to control a computer mouse at different age levels. The study looked at 221 Australian children between 5-10 years old. The results indicated the following:

• speed and accuracy improved with age with the greatest improvements seen from 6-7 years old and 8-9 years old
• performance plateaued between 9-10 years old
  
• practice helped with speed and accuracy
  
• smoothness of mouse use decreased with age
• no significant difference between girls and boys

Reference: Orwin, Jessica. Practice more important than age in learning to use computer mouse. Retrieved from the web on 4/23/2011 from http://scienceblog.com/42805/practice-more-important-than-age-in-learning-to-use-computer-mouse/