What Is Scratch? History, Features & Benefits of Visual Coding for Kids

Scratch is a block-based visual programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab (Lifelong Kindergarten Group) since 2007 under the leadership of Mitchel Resnick, designed specifically for children aged 8–16. Instead of typing complex code, kids snap colourful blocks together like a puzzle to build games, animations, and interactive stories — without the syntax errors that frustrate beginners.

Scratch is free at scratch.mit.edu, right in the browser, with nothing to install. Since its 2007 launch, Scratch has become the world's most popular kids' coding platform with over 100 million projects created by 90+ million registered users in 70+ languages (including Bahasa Indonesia). Scratch is the main foundation before kids move to text languages like Python or JavaScript.

Why Is It Called Visual Coding?

In Scratch, every instruction is a coloured block with short text, like "move 10 steps" or "say Hello". Kids drag and arrange these blocks to form a program. Because nothing is typed, children never hit the syntax errors that frustrate so many beginners.

This approach lets kids focus on logic and creativity, not memorising syntax. The concept is called block-based visual programming and has become the standard for kids' coding intros in over 40 countries — including school curricula in the UK, Estonia, and Finland. That's why Scratch is often the first step before children learn algorithms and text languages like Python.