Leo App Review: Injini's Write My Name

Tracing letters and words.

It's been a while since Leo sat down with a brand new app and just took off with it, but that's what happened with Injini's new Write My Name handwriting practice app ($1.99). Yay! Leo deserves a fun, crisply designed, intuitive and customizable app to help support his reading and writing skills.

You're probably thinking that there are a lot of handwriting practice apps out there, and you're right -- but this one is different, this one is superior.

These photos and video are from the very first time Leo sat down with Write My Name. He was delighted -- he immediately plowed through word after word, animation after animation, letter sound after letter sound, reinforced learning opportunity after reinforce learning opportunity.

The official information about the app follows, but I also talked to the developers and was pleased to find out that they consulted with occupational therapists on the handwriting portion of the app, and tested it with children with fine motor delays:

What's unique about Write My Name? There is plenty of competition in the tracing app category but our features can make a significant impact for children who struggle to learn how to write.

• Create 36 custom name tags with your own pictures and recordings to personalize learning for your child
• Beautiful illustrations
• Animations upon completion of each letter or word
• Easy to navigate to promote independent learning
• Uppercase and lowercase alphabet
• 100+ common sight/Dolch words
• Records student progress as word cards and letters are completed
• Fingerpaint mode shows completed letters in child’s own handwriting
• Distraction-free: No advertisements or in-app purchases

In the same tradition as Injini Child Development Game Suite and My First AAC, Project Injini was inspired to create Write My Name to help children with special needs practice emerging writing skills in a fun and playful way. Mastering writing your own name is often an IEP goal but the other tracing apps in the app store don't make this activity easily accessible AND achievable. We had this particular activity in mind when we created Write My Name. 

I love the customizable name tags -- and I can't wait to see how pleased Leo will be when we help him fill out a bunch of these tags with the names and photos of his favorite people and things -- which will then let him practice writing the names of those items.

Create your own name tag...

...then click on your name tag to practice writing your own name!

Letter tracing option one: Fingerpaint! This lets us see
what Leo's letter tracing ability actually looks like.

Letter tracing option two: clean lines! These lines are automatic,
and dependent on tracing ability but not fine motor precision.

The following video shows Leo and Write My Name in action. He loved this app -- and I appreciate that it broke him out of the Speech With Milo: Prepositions app rut he'd been stuck in this week (we love the Milo series, but right now the Milo music is the soundtrack of my nightmares).

Again, it's been a while since I've been really impressed with an app. This one's more than worthy of you or your child's time, and your $1.99.

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Disclosure: we were gifted a copy of the app, but the opinion expressed here is my own. I only review apps worth reviewing.

Leo's Penultimate Stylus for iPad Writing Practice

Leo traces dot-to-dot letters,
then writes his name his own damn way

Leo got a stylus for his iPad. It's a Pogo. It's very cool.* We're using it with the writing/sketching app Penultimate ($1.99) to practice handwriting and drawing -- when we're not goofing around.

The core functionality of Penultimate is no different than line-based drawing apps like DrawFree, and you could certainly use a stylus to practice handwriting with those apps. But I think Penultimate is worth two smackers for its additional features: notebook-like organization and storage of "pages;" paper types (plain, lines, graph); and a clean, professional, well-designed interface.

I'm guessing the next, final iteration of Penultimate will be even better. Until then, it's a good way for us to provide anywhere/any time writing exercises for Leo, and for him to practice his writing grip in a motivating environment.


I find that using a stylus gives me more dexterity control. It's not quite equivalent to a good pen on paper -- there's often a tiny tactile lag. Not quite like a crappy pen on paper -- there's no drag/tactile input (or interference, depending on how you process it) -- and perhaps the issue is my adjustment to a stylus interface. But the lack-of-drag is good for Leo, as it makes stylus practice more fluid, and anything that makes fine motor tasks easier for our boy is welcome.

The stylus does seem to make a difference in Leo's letter formation, and overall precision. This first "happy" page shows me writing with the stylus, and then Leo copying my writing. Notice how well-formed his letters are -- he ran out of space and put his Y on top of the Ps, but the writing is very clean, for Leo. (Handwriting is HARD for him!)

The second "happy" page shows me, then Leo writing "happy" again, but without a stylus. Not nearly as clean as the stylus version, in both cases.

I like using the stylus, too.

When I moved in a predominantly ink-and-paper environment, it was doodle time all the time. Now that I mostly type, drawing rarely happens, and I miss it. I haven't liked drawing on the iPad before, but with a stylus, it's really damn fun!


It's also therapeutic, as when I got booted from the Stanford blood donation center yesterday because my hemoglobin was too low. They ordered me to go get a hamburger, and come back in two weeks for a re-check. I was frustrated -- errands take time, there's a real need for my blood type, and I have no idea why my body was being uncooperative -- but instead of venting verbally to the usual patient victims, I processed my irritation via the iPad. And it helped.

So yeah. Stylus. Penultimate. Recommended.

*If, like me, you think the stylus looks like something you could make yourself, check out the mixed reviews on the DIY tutorials. Meh. I spent the $10.

Disclosure: None, for once. I chose and bought Penultimate after researching the handwriting app category.