Common Sense Media Review
By Dana Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Tracing-practice app corrects, assesses, and rewards.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
iTrace - handwriting for kids
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 2 parent reviews
What’s It About?
Read through the tutorial, set up a player account, and adapt the settings to letter style and left- or right-hand preference. Choose uppercase or lowercase letters, numbers, name practice, or words. Watch the hand trace the letter, listen to the letter name spoken, and then trace. Dots and lines show you where to trace. After tracing a letter three times, kids get a reward. In name mode, kids choose colors for tracing their names. In words mode, kids see animated items appear in the scene after each word they trace correctly.
Is It Any Good?
Overall, ITRACE - HANDWRITING FOR KIDS provides lots of good tracing exercises to help kids get familiar with letter formation. The ability to customize letters to left- or right-handed tracing as well as to different writing styles is especially impressive. As kids progress, the app selects the next appropriate exercise automatically. The My Name module allows kids to practice writing their own names in many color combinations -- sure to be a favorite choice for many kids.
On the downside, once a word appears the letters enlarge so parts of the word often confusingly fall off the right side of the screen. There are some odd word choices in the word-tracing mode that young kids aren't likely to be familiar with or use, such as "yacht" and "stilts," although you can add your own words. Also, the app says only the name of the letter and doesn't sound it out. Some terms used in the assessment ("too shaky," "out of bounds," and "overextended") may be descriptive but not necessarily helpful to say to kids trying to master that letter. If young users stick with letters, numbers, and kids' names for a while and modify assessments for older tracers, they can avoid the pitfalls and enjoy iTrace's strengths.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Create an individual user account and set letters to the style your kid is most familiar with as well as to left- or right-hand preference.
View the user reports, but consider leaving some of the negative language in the assessments ("too shaky," "mistakes") out of conversations with your kid about his or her work.
App Details
- Device: iPad
- Subjects: Language & Reading : following directions, letter or word recognition, writing, Math : numbers
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning : decision-making, Self-Direction : effort, self-assessment
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: September 10, 2013
- Category: Education
- Publisher: Elately iTrace
- Version: 1.2.1
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 5.0 or later
- Last updated: September 9, 2021
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