ScratchJr

Review by eFreeware

ScratchJr is a free introductory programming app from the Scratch Foundation, built so that children ages 5 and up can put together their own interactive stories and games. It is the younger sibling of Scratch, the block-based language used by children ages 8 and up, and the whole point of ScratchJr is to strip that idea back until it fits the hands and attention span of a five-year-old. Blocks are graphical, so nothing has to be typed, and children snap them together to make characters move, jump, dance and sing.

What makes it worth a parent's attention is the framing behind it. The people who built it treat coding as a form of literacy rather than a technical specialty, something a child can use to organize thoughts and express ideas the way writing does. That is a different proposition from most apps that teach a skill through drills: here the child is meant to be the author, and the program is the material. The app is free, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases, which removes the usual friction of handing a tablet to a young child.

Built for the youngest coders

The age guidance matters more here than it usually does. ScratchJr is designed for children from about five years old, and the interface and the programming language were both reworked from Scratch specifically to suit that group. The developer describes matching the design to how young children think, socialize and handle frustration, which is a meaningful distinction from simply shrinking a tool made for older users.

In practice I would expect this to land best in homes and classrooms where an adult is nearby for the first few projects. A five-year-old can drag blocks and press play, but deciding what a story should do is a creative task that benefits from someone asking questions. Children a little older, maybe seven or eight, will likely take to it independently and start building longer sequences without help.

It is also a reasonable fit for schools and after-school programs that want an early computing activity without a curriculum commitment. Because the app is free and there is nothing to buy inside it, a classroom set of tablets can run it without per-device costs or purchase approvals. The catch is hardware: this version runs only on tablets that are 7 inches or larger, so phones and small tablets are out, which rules out the hand-me-down phone as a first device.

Snapping blocks together

The core of the app is a set of graphical programming blocks that children connect to control characters on a stage. A short stack of blocks might send a character walking across the screen, and a longer stack can chain movement, sound and repetition into something that reads as a scene. Because the blocks are visual and shaped to fit together, a child who cannot yet read fluently can still build a working sequence and see immediately what it does.

The vocabulary of actions is deliberately small: characters can move, jump, dance and sing. That is enough to make a first project feel alive without burying a young child in options, and it keeps the focus on sequencing, which is the skill the app is really after. The developer frames this as learning to solve problems and design projects, and as practice with the ordering of steps that underpins a lot of later schoolwork.

Characters, voices and photos

ScratchJr does not stop at the blocks. There is a paint editor for changing how characters look, so a child can recolor or redraw the figures in a project rather than accept them as they are. That turns the app into a small art tool as well as a coding one, and it gives children a reason to care about the result.

Sound is handled the same way. Children can record their own voices and add sounds, and they can bring photos into a project, including pictures of themselves. A character that speaks in a child's own recorded voice, or one that walks past a photo of the family dog, is a noticeably more personal thing than a generic animation, and it makes the finished project something worth showing to someone else.

The combination is what separates this from a puzzle game that happens to teach logic. The child is making a small piece of media with behavior, and the programming is the means rather than the subject. I would expect the projects to be short, but the loop of build, run, adjust and show is a genuine creative cycle, and it is the part that keeps children coming back.

The thinking behind it

Tufts University's Developmental Technologies group, MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten group and the Playful Invention Company built the app together, with Two Sigma handling the Android release. The illustrations were made by HvingtQuatre Company and Sarah Thomson. That is an unusually academic pedigree for a children's app, and it shows in the restraint of the design rather than in any visible branding.

The developer's argument is that coding deserves the same status as writing: a way of organizing thought and expressing ideas that everyone should have access to, not a specialist skill for the few. That belief shapes what the app asks of a child. There are no scores to chase and no streak to maintain, just a stage, some characters and a set of blocks.

There is also a second layer of learning the developer points to. While building projects, children use math and language in a context that matters to them, which supports early numeracy and literacy alongside the sequencing practice. Whether a parent notices that happening is another matter, but it is a sensible reason to treat the app as more than screen time.

What it costs, and what it does not

ScratchJr is free to download and use. There are no ads in the app and no in-app purchases, so a child cannot stumble into a payment prompt or a sponsored interruption while building a project.

The developer does ask for donations to the Scratch Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the project, and describes the app as free with that support in mind. Nothing about the app depends on giving, and there is no tier to upgrade to. The only real cost is the hardware requirement: a tablet of 7 inches or more running Android 4.2 or later.

Where a different tool might fit better

If the child in question is already comfortable reading and wants to build something with more moving parts, the natural step up is Scratch itself, which the developer identifies as the language this app was inspired by and which is intended for ages 8 and up. That is a progression rather than a replacement, and starting younger with ScratchJr is a reasonable way to arrive there.

A phone-first household should look at the hardware question before anything else, because this version of the app will not run on a handset or a small tablet. And a family that wants a structured course, with lessons and progress tracking, is looking at a different category of product; ScratchJr is an open canvas with a small set of blocks, and its value comes from what a child decides to make with them.

There is also the question of how much guidance a child gets. A child left alone with an open creative tool may build one project and drift away, while a child with a parent or teacher nearby tends to go further. That is true of most creative software, and it is worth being realistic about before installing.

A free starting point for young makers

ScratchJr has been available since March 2015 and was last updated in November 2023, with more than 10 million installs and a 3.8 average from over 39,000 ratings. The rating suggests a broadly positive reception rather than universal enthusiasm, which is unsurprising for a tool that depends heavily on how it is used at home or in class.

My recommendation is straightforward for a specific audience. If you have a child around five to eight years old and a tablet that meets the size requirement, this is an easy thing to install: it is free, it has no ads or purchases, and it gives a young child a genuine first experience of making a program rather than watching one. It suits parents, teachers and caregivers who are willing to sit alongside a child for the first few projects and let the child lead from there.

If your child is already past blocks and reading comfortably, the older Scratch language is the more natural home. For everyone in between, ScratchJr is a low-risk way to find out whether building things on a screen is something your child takes to.