Scratch is intended for older children who already have a certain level of literacy. There is another product, ScratchJr, for younger children that uses an icon

Scratch is intended for older children who already have a certain level of literacy. There is another product, ScratchJr, for younger children that uses an icon-based UI: http://scratchjr.org/ http://scratchjr.org/ The transition path between them is indeed what you described.