Complied by Joanna Moore and Catherine Elsey, Paediatric Occupational Therapists
The following table lists apps that are useful when teaching or helping with handwriting. We hope they will be helpful to educators, therapists and parents. We start with a tip about using a tablet to promote handwriting:
When using the tablet, try to promote optimum handwriting and pencil grip by using a stylus as a pencil. To avoid interference from other parts of the hand, especially from the wrist touching the screen at the same time, the child can use an adapted glove. The adaptation is achieved through cutting off the thumb, index and middle fingertips of the glove with scissors. Wearing the glove, the child can use the stylus and tablet more like a pencil and paper pad. I use cheap stretchy gloves.
With thanks to Isabelle Vanderyvere, Artevelde University College, Ghent Belgium for sharing this tip at a recent NHA AGM and conference, 2018.
| App and cost | Description | Key benefits | Tips |
| Letter School Free (basic) or £9.99 | • Two versions: block and cursive. Block is preferable as cursive follows American style • Teaches capital and lower case letters and numbers • Very visual and engaging with fun audio • Different skill levels (silver and gold) | 1. Enables progression in learning through demonstration, trial and freestyle forming letters and numbers 2. Prevents common errors, and graphics and audio motivate 3. In freestyle mode, guidance is provided if needed 4. Parent and teacher portal with access code to record and check child’s progress 5. Associated support website for teachers and parents 6. Used successfully with different abilities and age groups | Use tip above and then practise writing the letter or number with conventional pencil and paper |
| Letter Reflex Dexteria family of apps £3.99 | • One of the Dexteria family of apps • Progressive skill levels, and performance is measurable • Relies on responding to audible spoken instructions • Kinaesthetic control required to give the correct answer • Uses swipe action to orientate letters, words and numbers correctly | 1. Helps with discrimination of left and right and between similar shape letters/ numbers 2. Works on visual perceptual skills and laterality | |
| Piko’s Blocks £1.99 from Apple App Store or free ‘lite’ version | • Designed by OTs and teachers • Presents 3-D block shapes to copy • Shapes can be orientated using swipe action • Guides if repeated mistake • Visually appealing and can enlarge or shrink shapes using ‘pinch’ action • Different levels of difficulty including mirroring and spatially orientating around a focal point | 1. Helps spatial and visual reasoning, 3-D geometric thinking and problem solving | • Try copying the shapes on screen using actual blocks to help praxis and spatial orientation • If it is distracting, turn background music off in Settings |
| Ready to Print Tablet only, not iPhone £9.99 | • Designed by an OT • Progresses through pre-writing skills in a specific order so children can master the skills necessary for writing • Nine gradable activities developing specific skills fundamental for writing | 1. Works on finger isolation skills, visual scanning skills, visual tracking, visual motor integration skills, fine motor skills and pincer grasp 2. Best for 3–7 years old or older if working on pre-writing skills | • Use tip in the introduction above, and then practise writing the letter or number just completed on the tablet • Practise transferring the skills to paper by making paper and pencil tasks that match the app |
| Touch follow Shapes Hatchworks Ltd Three apps: Touch follow Shapes Touch follow Alphabet Touch follow Numbers | • Simple to allow the child to follow different shapes using touch • From 18 months to 5 years • Uses sounds and ‘sparkle’ graphics for engagement | 1.Works on visual motor integration skill, fine motor skill, shape recognition 2.Simple interface and very colourful | • Use tip in the introduction above and then practise drawing the shape and writing the letter or number with conventional pencil and paper • Very good for maintaining attention |
| Hairy Letters Nessy Learning Ltd | • Teaches the sounds and names of each letter with the ‘Hairies’ • Fun, animated characters • Watch the letter movement, then trace the letter shape (both lower and upper case) onscreen with a finger. Play games to build simple words and learn to blend sounds. Letters are introduced in six colour-coded stages. • Ages 4–6 years old | 1.Very visual and engaging with fun audio and character animation 2.First letters to be released are a, p, s, t 3. Phonics, basic ‘cvc’ word building and blending 4. Motor planning and teaching letter shape and movement patterns | • Once all letters have been unlocked (possibly by an adult playing it first) it can then be used to work on learning letter formation in a motivating and very visual way. It can be accessed in letter family groups according to movement patterns. |
| Dexteria Junior Available for Apple | • Has three sections: Squish the squash Pinch the pepper Trace and erase • Suitable for 2–6 years old | 1.Helps to promote finger strength, finger isolation, fine motor control, pincer grasp, dexterity skills, pre-writing skills and visual motor integration | • Use tip in the introduction above for Trace and Erase. Very good for maintaining attention. Fun and motivating for pre-writing skills |
| Matrix Games 1, 2 & 3 My First App.com £4.99 | • Arrange the matrix by dragging each shape into the right place. Each card is a combination of shapes from the horizontal row above and the vertical column on the side Game 1 – Age 4 + Game 2 – Age 5 + Game 3 – Age 6 + | 1.Helps develop visual discrimination, attention, spatial orientation, principles of classification and categorisation, planning and perseverance 2.Enables progression through games 1, 2 and 3 | |
| Spatial Line Puzzles Free version or £3.99 | • Engaging game designed by an OT • Complete the puzzles by copying the lines to the empty box. By analysing the position of the dots or blocks and identifying how the lines relate to each other, spatial skills are strengthened. For additional stimulation of visual memory skills, with the option turned on in settings, the puzzle will disappear after a selected period of time • The puzzles are graded from easy to more challenging according to the following levels:Dot 3×3, box 3×3, Dot 4×4, box 4×4, dot 5×5 • Multi-user scoring is included so you can add many users | 1. Develop spatial skills and visual memory | • Use Dot/box outline option to make puzzles more challenging • Bird game option – after successful completion of five puzzles you will be rewarded with a short, fun game designed to reinforce spatial concepts • The free version offers five puzzles in Dot and box 3×3 levels |
| Dexteria Visual Motor Integration Binary Labs £5.99 | Includes two engaging activities: Make and Match. • Make – recreate objects using combinations of shapes by dragging them together • Match – identify matching objects from a variety of differing shapes and orientations | 1.Develops visual motor integration, specifically visual figure ground discrimination, visual discrimination, copy build, visual motor and fine motor skills 2. Enables best score tracking | |
| Dexteria Fine Motor Skills Binary Labs £5.99 | • Consists of three games of hand and finger activities that use multi-touch screen to help build fine motor skills. Enables auto tracking of time on task and progress and creates usage reports that can be emailed • Write it – trace over upper and lower case letters and numbers 0–9 • Pinch it – pinch pictures of crabs to play the game. Numbers of crabs and the speed they move increases as you progress • Tap it – place all fingers on screen and it calibrates your finger position then you tap the corresponding finger indicated by visual on screen | 1. Develops finger control and dexterity 2. Write it – indicates a starting point of each letter/number. Uses basic print font with no option to change font and no play back. Name of letter given on completing of tracing. Repetitive xylophone sounds whilst tracing 3. Pinch it – develops basic pinch grip, however, can achieve the result by just sliding two fingers together. Has sound reinforcers 4. Tap it – develops finger isolation and sequencing. Speed increases as you progress thus developing greater speed and dexterity | • Write it is more grown up than some apps as it consists of only two colours on a still screen with no additional visuals or sound reinforcers • Pinch it – quite fun and visual |
| Writing Wizard L’Escapadou Free or £4.99 | • Learning letter formation, names and sounds | 1.Enables progression in learning through demonstration, trial and freestyle forming of letters and numbers 2. Prevents common errors and the graphics and audio motivate 3. Used successfully with different abilities and age groups | • Use tip in the introduction above and then practise writing the letter or number with conventional pencil and paper • Can do customised spelling lists, etc |
Suggestions for other handwriting apps
- iTrace
- hip hop hen – ‘ABC’ letter tracing
- SnapType Pro
- Doodlr.io – free multiplayer drawing and guessing word game.
