Instruction Manual

This section contains the instruction manual for Pictures Are For Babies. It should be read by any tutor interested in using it with a student, so they should allocate time to read it before their first session. Tutors are responsible for operating the program correctly and in accordance with the instructions given here. Students are not expected to read this manual. Lite licenses of the program are offered on a donation basis so that prospective users can try it out without financial risk. Information on how to obtain a Lite or Full license is available on the buying page.

Full instructions are spread out in multiple subsections, which include instructions for installation, using the program, and how to conduct instruction and intervention across the different types of courses. However, at its core, Pictures Are For Babies is very simple to use once it is set up and the tutor is familiar with the instructions.

There are two roles in a training session. The student is the person who is learning to read and write, and the tutor is a literate adult (or older child) who is responsible for operating the program, guiding the student, and delivering instruction when needed. The logo of Pictures Are For Babies, a young and an older bear reading together, is meant to symbolize this relationship. An overview of the instructions to run a training session is as follows:

• Start the program and navigate to the "Practice" tab.
• Click on the "Select Folder". If you have not used the program before, create a new folder at a convenient location on your computer and select it. If you have used the program before, select the folder you used previously. Progress and settings are stored in this folder.
• Upon successfully doing that, the "Practice" tab will show a new lesson. There are two types of lesson.
  • Reading lesson show examples of words, sentences, or texts that the student is expected to read out loud.
  • Dictation lesson show examples of words or sentences that the student is expected to write down on paper based on the tutor's dictation.
  • To avoid letting the students see the examples during dictation lessons and to prevent them from reading other examples during reading lessons, all the examples start as hidden.
• The tutor looks at the type of lesson to know how to proceed.
• For each example, the tutor clicks on the "Reveal Example" button to show the example.
  • In reading lessons, the tutor asks the student to read the example out loud. If the student reads it automatically and correctly, the tutor clicks on the "✗" button to mark it as correct.
  • In dictation lessons, the tutor instructs the student to look away from the screen and to write down what they hear. If the student automatically and correctly writes down the example, the tutor clicks on the "✗" button to mark it as correct.
  • Clicking on the "✗" button turns it into a "✓" button. Clicking again turns it back into a "✗" button, which allows the tutor to correct mistakes.
  • It is very important that tutors only mark examples as correct if the student responds automatically and correctly.
• After tutor and student have gone through all the examples, the tutor performs tiered intervention based on the student's performance and the type of lesson. For example, in the word courses this involves explicit instruction on how words are pronounced and how their sounds map to their letters, and additional work if students remain stuck in the same lesson.
• After the intervention, the tutor clicks on the "Next Lesson" button to move on to the next lesson.
• A new lesson is shown, and the tutor repeats the process until the end of the session.
• If the student gets tired or frustrated, tutors have the option to switch to a reading break that is meant to be fun and relaxing. Full instructions on how to conduct reading breaks are given in the reading break section of this manual.
  • Students can come back to do more lessons after the reading break or end the session there.
• When the session is over, tutors click on "Next Lesson" to submit the score of the last lesson and exit the program. Sessions should be at least 15 minutes long, but sessions longer than 1 hour (with breaks included) are not recommended. The program works best with regular sessions rather than infrequent and long ones.

Commentary🔗

Instructions in this manual are structured in two sections. The first section contains the actual instructions while an optional commentary section, such as this one, provides additional context and explanations on why certain choices were made. The commentary is not essential to follow the instructions, but it is recommended to read at least once to understand the rationale behind the pedagogy and the design of the program.

The first thing to note about the overview above is that the tutor does not choose which lesson is shown next. Pictures Are For Babies is backed by Trane, a deliberate practice engine that selects lessons based on the student's performance. The engine automatically moves to new courses when the student masters their prerequisites, repeats lessons to ensure they are reviewed at optimal intervals, and adjusts the difficulty of lessons to keep the student challenged but not overwhelmed.

All of this allows tutors to focus on instruction and intervention instead of planning the lessons. Just the words and sentence courses alone contain over 1,200 lessons that introduce over 18,000 unique words. A human tutor would have a hard time planning lessons that cover all of this material and deciding on when to run a tiered intervention.

However, the engine works probabilistically, which means that it is not guaranteed to always select the best individual lessons, especially at the beginning of training when it has little data on the student and few exercises that it can pick. Tutors have the ability to skip lessons or mark lessons and entire courses as mastered if they believe the student does not need to practice them anymore. The purpose of the engine is to reduce the cognitive load on tutors, not replace them or overwrite their judgment.

The second point of note is that the tutor is instructed to only mark examples as correct if the student responds automatically and correctly. This is a deliberate and central part of the program's pedagogy. Decoding is a first step towards fluent reading, not the end goal. Fluent readers can instantly read and write tens of thousands of words that they have stored in their long-term memory. Most reading programs do not distinguish between automatic and effortless reading and decoding, and thus cannot ensure the development of this large sight vocabulary. Pictures Are For Babies, on the other hand, is designed from the ground up towards this goal.

The third point of note is the concept of tiered intervention. This concept appears in the most successful reading programs on which Pictures Are For Babies is based. All students receive Tier 1 intervention, which consists of general instruction on letter-sounds mapping. Students who struggle with certain lessons receive Tier 2 intervention, which consists of exercises meant to correct phonemic deficits, the most common cause of reading difficulties. Students who continue to struggle, receive Tier 3 intervention, which consists of the same exercises as Tier 2 and additional multisensory support meant to correct more severe and complex deficits. Full instructions and explanations on how to conduct tiered intervention are given in the word courses section of this manual.

The last point of note is that, because of the program's design, its use of a deliberate practice engine, and its pedagogy, the tutor does not need to be a trained specialist. Anyone who can fluently speak, read, and write in the language of instruction can be a tutor. This makes Pictures Are For Babies unique among the programs that follow the same pedagogy, as they require teachers or reading specialists and much more labor to operate with the same level of precision and effectiveness.