Pictures Are For Babies Is Now Available!
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After years of development, from its inception as a deliberate practice engine that helped me learn music, Pictures Are For Babies is now available to the public, delivering the most complete and ambitious literacy program available from its very first version.
The first version of Pictures Are For Babies goes beyond all other literacy programs in its scope, depth, and ambition across multiple dimensions:
- It integrates Trane, a state-of-the-art deliberate practice engine that optimizes learning by following proven principles of cognitive science, expert performance, and optimal learning. The student receives a personalized learning experience that enables them to practice at the edge of their current abilities, all at the click of a button. It enables the student to learn optimally and the tutor to focus on delivering instruction and support instead of managing scheduling.
- It is one of the few programs that incorporates the concept of orthographic mapping from the ground up. Orthographic mapping is the process by which words are stored in long-term memory for instant retrieval. Programs that focus only on phonics and decoding are insufficient for developing true reading fluency and for detecting, preventing, and remediating reading difficulties. On the other hand, programs that incorporate these findings, develop true fluency, fix most reading difficulties, and deliver effect sizes that are multiples of those delivered by phonics-only programs.
- It includes a comprehensive and systematic curriculum that covers the entire journey from learning letter names and sounds to reading and writing sentences of college-level complexity. The curriculum contains over 1,100 lessons and teaches over 18,000 unique words. Thanks to Trane, the curriculum is delivered with precision and fidelity. No other program that I could find comes close to this level of completeness.
- Like its name indicates, it includes no pictures, and does not engage in any form of gamification or other distractions. The choice is not arbitrary. Orthographic mapping research shows that reading and writing acquisition are at their core phonological processes. Visuals, games, and other distractions interfere with these processes by competing for cognitive resources. By removing these distractions, delivering correct instruction of core skills, and fostering the conditions for deliberate practice, Pictures Are For Babies shows respect for the science and for students as capable learners who can rise to the challenges and learn to love literacy for its own sake.
What is being released today?🔗
Two products are being released today:
A Lite version of Pictures Are For Babies, which includes the first levels of the curriculum and is available for free (with an optional donation) with no time limits and no payment required. By completing the Lite version, students will have mastered all letter-sound correspondences, common symbols, and a few hundred words. However, the value of the Lite version goes well beyond its content. By integrating orthographic mapping and deliberate practice from the ground up, it serves as a complete and professional tool for detection, prevention, and remediation of reading difficulties in early readers.
At a time when reading standards are falling and reading difficulties are on the rise, the Lite version incorporates the strategies used by the most successful reading interventions, which have shown that over 90% of all students can learn to read and write at grade level with correct instruction that focuses on the skills that develop fluent reading and writing. With even a few hours of correct instruction, readers with difficulties that have persisted for years can make significant progress. Offering the Lite version for free is more than a business decision. It is an offering to those, who like my grandparents, have been denied the opportunity to receive the best possible instruction.
Pictures Are For Babies can offer such a generous free version because it operates under a very different definition of what mastering literacy means. While most competitors consider completing a phonics curriculum as the end of the journey, Pictures Are For Babies aims to develop true mastery of literacy at the college level and beyond. The first release of the Full version is the first step to accomplishing this ambitious goal.
The Full version of Pictures Are For Babies includes the completed curriculum for reading and writing at the symbol, word, and sentence levels. Upcoming releases will add the remaining tracks of the curriculum, focused on reading comprehension of a variety of text types and explicit writing instruction at the sentence paragraph and essay levels. All software and content updates are included with every purchase of the Full version. The Full version is available via a $1000 one-time payment or a $20/month subscription.
Getting started🔗
Pictures Are For Babies is built on the simple belief that every student deserves the kind of education my grandparents and parents were denied: clear, structured, rigorous, and capable of unlocking their full potential. It is dedicated to them and inspired by the conviction that mastering literacy to the highest level is a fundamental right for all. I hope that Pictures Are For Babies can help you or someone you love to discover the joy of reading and writing, and to open doors that previously seemed locked from the inside.
To get started, you can find out how to get a Lite or Full license by visiting the Get page.
For a much more detailed explanation of the principles behind Pictures Are For Babies and how they are implemented in the software, please visit the pedagogy document and the instruction manual. For screenshots of the software in action, please visit the User Interface section of the manual. The video below contains a brief introduction to the program and a demo session.