This section compiles practical advice on how to best use Pictures Are For Babies. Some of these pieces of advice are also found in other sections of the manual, but this page gathers them together in one place for ease of reference.
The tutor is a partner, not a drill sergeant. Their most important role is to be a warm, patient, and encouraging guide. The goal is a shared journey of discovery. Their calm and loving presence is the single most important factor in the student's success. The logo, with the big and smaller bears reading in a softly lit meadow, encapsulates the feeling of an ideal tutoring session.
Reading the manual is essential. While it takes a few hours of concerted effort, the manual clarifies the philosophy, pedagogy, and practicalities of the program. A few sections, like the word courses include a lot of instructional detail, but the advantage of basing the program on orthographic mapping is that the same procedure applies to teaching every word. The investment in reading the manual will pay off for years to come.
Ensure that automaticity is the only criterion for mastery. This cannot be stated enough. The goal of the program is to build true mastery, not just familiarity. When it comes to symbols, words, and sentences, correct but effortful decoding can mask reading difficulties. As a rule of thumb, if the student takes more than one second to start reading a word, do not consider it as mastered. Words must be read fluently without stopping. Sentences must not only be read correctly and fluently, but also with natural prosody and expression.
Tutors can role-play as students to make sure they understand the instructions. Simply create a temporary directory to store progress, and role-play as both tutor and student. Once you are confident, deactivate the license in this test instance, create a new directory to hold the real student's progress, and activate the license in the new instance.
Always allow and encourage the student to say "I don't know" when appropriate. Marking examples as mastered should never be seen as a failure or a value judgement. It is simply gathering accurate data to guide the learning process. It also develops metacognitive skills, the ability to accurately assess one's own knowledge and skills, which is a hallmark of how experts conduct true deliberate practice.
In the beginning, the practice engine might surface the same lesson multiple times in a session. There are limited lessons available for the student at the start, so this is expected. If this happens many times during a session, it is a signal that the student is not making much progress in a single session, and that it is OK for the tutor to end the session early, perhaps after a reading break.
The deliberate practice engine that chooses the next lesson is not meant to override the tutor's judgement. It is a tool that vastly simplifies the tutor's job, and while it guarantees progress over the long term, it contains some probabilistic elements that do not guarantee every lesson to be the most optimal. The tutor is free to skip a lesson, and to mark a lesson or course as mastered if they feel it is appropriate that the student never practices it again.
Dictation lessons are not about handwriting. The tutor is free to adapt how students respond to dictation prompts if handwriting is a barrier. They can have the student spell the word aloud, use letter tiles, or type on a keyboard or tablet.
Consistent lessons of short duration are better than infrequent longer sessions. Three to five times a week for at least half an hour (with reading breaks included in this time) is ideal. More time is OK, but only if the student is motivated to continue.
The reading break is a strategic tool that allows students to take a break from effortful practice without losing momentum. Students are free to request a reading break whenever they feel the need for one. The tutor can also suggest a reading break if they feel the student is becoming frustrated or fatigued.