There was nothing in between
It started with a frustrated parent and a three-year-old who loved keyboards. Every app we found was either a smash toy — press anything, watch something explode — or a typing tutor built for school-age kids who already knew their letters. There was nothing in between. Nothing that treated the keyboard as a learning tool and met toddlers where they actually are developmentally. So we built ToddlerKeys: free, no ads, no accounts, and actually designed around how young children learn.
Grounded in early childhood research
Our approach is grounded in early childhood research. Letter recognition before age five is one of the strongest predictors of reading success — and physical, hands-on interaction with letters accelerates that recognition. The American Academy of Pediatrics distinguishes between passive screen time and interactive screen time; keyboard play that reinforces letter names and sounds falls firmly in the interactive category.
NAEYC on pre-literacy and play
The National Association for the Education of Young Children emphasizes that pre-literacy skills develop through play, repetition, and low-stakes exploration. ToddlerKeys is built on exactly those principles: four progressive modes that take a child from free key-smashing at age two all the way to typing their first short words at age five or six, with no pressure, no wrong answers that feel like failure, and no timer counting down their confidence.
COPPA compliant — by design, not just policy
We take children's privacy seriously. ToddlerKeys collects no personal data — no accounts, no analytics, no advertising networks, no third-party scripts of any kind. The only thing stored is a child's preferred game mode, optional name, and sound setting, saved locally in the browser and never transmitted anywhere. We are COPPA compliant not just by policy but by design: there is simply nothing to collect. Parents and teachers can hand over the keyboard knowing the only thing happening is learning.
We're just getting started
The current app covers letter recognition and keyboard familiarity for ages 2-6. Coming next: more illustrated word sets, classroom tools for teachers to set a mode before handing devices to students, and language support for families who aren't learning in English. Everything will stay free. If you have feedback, a feature request, or just want to say what mode your kid is stuck on, we'd love to hear from you.