The Blobble Write family of apps are educational apps for iOS, Android and Kindle devices that teach children handwriting skills and how to write numbers and the letters of the alphabet.
Created in 2011 by Leafcutter Studios Ltd, the original BlobbleWrite app has been downloaded thousands of times and is used in homes and schools around the world.
The app demonstrates the correct stroke order and direction for each of the numbers and the letters in the alphabet and lets children copy in a space below.
The show and copy method is very effective at helping children develop their handwriting skils.
The app uses a specially designed font to ensure that children can reproduce the letter forms exactly. In contrast to a typographical font, the BlobbleWrite Basics font uses a constant width, rounded stroke to create letter forms.
Typically a typographical font will vary the stroke width and use squared off edges and stroke ends - this is impossible to replicate with a finger traced stroke and can lead to confusion in young learners.
In addition the app produces phonetically correct pronunciation sounds for each of the letters to ensure that early learners begin to associate the correct phonetic sounds with the letters they are writing.
In 2020 Leafcutter Studios released the second BlobbleWrite app - BlobbleWrite Beginners. This app is aimed at young learners who are just beginning their handwriting journey.
Before starting to learn letter forms it is sometimes beneficial for young learners to spend time practicing tracing simpler lines and curves.
The BlobbleWrite Beginners app provides exactly that opportunity in a familiar BlobbleWrite environment to make the eventual transition to the main BlobbleWrite app more straightforward.
The app uses the familiar show and copy paradigm to introduce children to tracing straight lines initially - horizontal, vertical and diagonal. There are then further sections for corners, curves and finally shapes and combinations.
Children can build confidence with these simple line forms which will help them as they make the transition to learning the more complicated patterns in letters.