I'm new to using my tablet and I really want to use it but there's some problems I'm running into. Have any advice?

One the touch screen recognizes my hand and not so much the pen. ( I draw with my hand against the surface usually ) And it really interferes with my attempts at drawing digitally.
And also is there a way to fix the speed of the tablet; because the times I did try to draw it took a long time to actually show what I did on screen and not just that by change my lines into a artistic mess.

:( I would really like some help.