WHILE most children his age sketch on paper with crayons, nine-year old Lim Ding Wen from Singapore, has a very different canvas - his iPhone.

Lim, who is in fourth grade, writes applications for Apple's popular iPhone. His latest, a painting program called Doodle Kids, has been downloaded over 4,000 times from Apple's iTunes store in two weeks, the New Paper reported on Thursday.

The program lets iPhone users draw with their fingers by touching the iPhone's touchscreen and then clear the screen by shaking the phone.

'I wrote the program for my younger sisters, who like to draw,' Lim said. His sisters are aged 3 and 5.

Lim, who is fluent in six programming languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programming projects.

His father, Lim Thye Chean, a chief technology officer at a local technology firm, also writes iPhone applications.

'Every evening we check the statistics emailed to us (by iTunes) to see who has more downloads,' the older Lim said.

The boy, who enjoys reading books on programming, is in the process of writing another iPhone application - a science fiction game called 'Invader Wars'. -- REUTERS