L’Escapadou

L’Escapadou (Writing & Tracing Apps)

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Recommended Ages

PreK-5th Grade (early learners)

Helping kids develop legible handwriting and spelling on touchscreens can be surprisingly frustrating with generic apps. L’Escapadou is a small, family-run developer best known for Montessori-inspired apps like Writing Wizard and Word Wizard, which combine customizable tracing, phonics, and spelling practice with playful animations. Designed by a French developer and homeschooling parent, these apps are used worldwide by families, therapists, and schools to support early literacy and fine motor skills. We love how deeply customizable they are: adults can adjust fonts, difficulty, word lists, and even add their own voice prompts. L’Escapadou apps are an excellent fit for young children, including many neurodivergent learners, who need extra practice with letter formation, spelling, or handwriting without tears. The interfaces can feel a bit utilitarian compared to big commercial games, but the underlying pedagogy and flexibility are outstanding. Pro tip: create custom word lists based on your phonics program or weekly spelling words so practice stays tightly aligned with the rest of your language arts.

Best for PreK–early elementary children learning letters, numbers, or cursive who enjoy tablets and respond to instant visual feedback, including many kids with fine‑motor or handwriting challenges who benefit from multi‑sensory, repeatable practice.

Pros

Highly customizable tracing and spelling apps (like Writing Wizard, Cursive Writing Wizard, Montessori Numbers, and Word Wizard) that use engaging animations, stickers, and sound effects to keep kids practicing letter and number formation; detailed progress reports and the ability to create custom word lists make them especially useful for homeschool families targeting specific skills; Writing Wizard in particular has earned multiple educational‑app awards and rave reviews from teachers and therapists. 

Cons

Focused on on‑screen tracing rather than pencil‑and‑paper work, so parents still need to bridge skills to real handwriting; some users of certain apps (especially Word Wizard on Android/Chromebook) report occasional freezing or technical glitches; not a complete handwriting curriculum with scope and sequence—it’s best viewed as targeted practice. 

These apps are consumer purchases through app stores rather than school‑district contracts, so there’s no official ESA/charter list; some programs may reimburse them as assistive or handwriting tools, but families should verify with their provider.

Free on App Store with in-app purchases ($4.99 on Google Play)

L’Escapadou (Writing & Tracing Apps)
$0.00 USD

Skills

What kids will learn

L’Escapadou (Writing & Tracing Apps) Mission

L’Escapadou’s mission is to craft child‑tested, highly customizable apps that help young kids develop early literacy and handwriting skills through play. Their titles like Writing Wizard and Montessori Crosswords focus on multisensory tracing, phonics, and spelling practice that adapts to each learner while keeping motivation high.

L’Escapadou (Writing & Tracing Apps) Story

L’Escapadou began as a family design studio in the south of France when software developer and homeschooling dad Pierre Abel started building educational apps soon after the first iPad was released in 2010. Drawing inspiration from Montessori materials and observing how his own daughters learned best, he created tools that let kids trace letters, build words, and explore language with animated rewards and detailed progress tracking. Over time, L’Escapadou’s apps have earned multiple awards from reviewers and children’s‑tech organizations and have become staples in many homeschool and classroom iPad collections.

About Modular Learning

FAQ: Additional Details about L’Escapadou (Writing & Tracing Apps)

A typical session has your child choosing a letter, following the animated path with a finger or stylus as the app responds with satisfying sound and visual effects, and then playing a quick mini‑game (like driving a car or collecting stars) using the strokes they just practiced. Over time, you can switch from single letters to your own word lists such as spelling or vocabulary.

L’Escapadou’s handwriting and spelling apps (such as Writing Wizard and Cursive Writing Wizard) let kids trace letters, numbers, and custom words on a tablet using guided arrows, multisensory effects, and short games that unlock when they complete a tracing. Families typically assign a few letters or words per day as fine‑motor and handwriting practice, using built‑in progress tracking to see how children are forming shapes. 

Parents or caregivers usually choose which letters or words to practice, model a few traces, and then step back while the child works independently, checking occasionally to ensure proper grip and posture.

Kids need basic touch‑screen skills and the fine‑motor ability to trace on a screen; no letter knowledge is required to start, but the apps shine once you’ve introduced letter names and sounds.

L’Escapadou’s tracing and spelling apps are widely loved by OT’s and families for dysgraphia, fine‑motor delays, and early writers because they allow endless, low‑pressure practice with big, colorful strokes. Autistic and ADHD kids often enjoy the immediate feedback and lack of erasing; adults can pair with real‑world writing as comfort grows.

L’Escapadou’s writing and tracing apps let kids practise letters with audio cues, customizable fonts (including options used by dyslexia specialists), and instant feedback, making them a popular tool in dyslexia and dysgraphia therapy. Because children can build motor memory for letters through play, they strengthen handwriting and spelling without the pressure of workbook pages.

L’Escapadou’s Writing Wizard and related apps let kids trace letters with a finger or stylus using customizable settings, which can reduce sensory overload from paper-and-pencil work and give lots of visual and proprioceptive feedback.

Tracing apps like Writing Wizard from L’Escapadou are widely recommended by occupational therapists and can be customized for each child, making them a good fit for kids with fine‑motor delays, developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia, or other motor‑based handwriting challenges who need highly adjustable letter size and difficulty.

Often helpful for 2e kids with dysgraphia or motor delays because they separate letter formation from pencil control. Stylus‑on‑tablet practice can build confidence before moving to paper; keep it as a tool, not a test.

L’Escapadou’s writing and tracing apps let kids practise letters with audio cues, customizable fonts (including options used by dyslexia specialists), and instant feedback, making them a popular tool in dyslexia and dysgraphia therapy. Because children can build motor memory for letters through play, they strengthen handwriting and spelling without the pressure of workbook pages.

L’Escapadou’s Writing Wizard app is highly customizable (letter size, difficulty, fonts, left-handed mode) and is used by many teachers and therapists to work on handwriting, which can make it a helpful tool for children with dysgraphia who need extra fine-motor support. Kids practice tracing with a finger or stylus and can replay and adjust as needed, giving lots of multisensory repetition without the pressure of perfect pencil work.

Refunds are governed by the platforms where you buy (Apple, Google Play, Microsoft), which typically offer short windows for app refunds; the small L’Escapadou team itself doesn’t operate a separate direct‑refund program. 

Not ideal for families who avoid screens, for students already writing fluently who need composition skills rather than tracing, or for kids who are easily overstimulated by animations and sound effects.

For more structured handwriting curricula, consider Handwriting Without Tears, Zaner‑Bloser, or printable copywork; for other digital options, some families also use LetterSchool or similar tracing apps alongside or instead of L’Escapadou. 

L’Escapadou regularly updates its apps with new features, device support, and integrations, and has partnered with educational platforms like AWE Learning and the Microsoft Store to bring its tracing tools to more classrooms and libraries. 

Use shorter, frequent sessions (5–10 minutes) and then immediately practice the same letters or words with pencil and paper; create custom lists with your child’s name, friends, and favorite words to keep practice meaningful.

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Meet Pierre

Pierre Abel is the founder of L’Escapadou, an independent developer based near Nice, France, who began creating educational apps when the iPad first appeared and his family was homeschooling their two daughters. Combining a background in software engineering with Montessori‑inspired pedagogy and extensive user testing, he has developed award‑winning apps such as Writing Wizard and Montessori Crosswords that are praised for being both deeply customizable and genuinely fun for kids.