About

Let's Read

Let’s Read’s vision is for all Australian children share books, stories, songs and nursery rhymes every day from birth with the important people in their lives.

About Let’s Read

Let’s Read is a national, evidence-based early literacy initiative that promotes reading with children from birth to five years. Its vision is for all Australian children to share books, stories, songs and nursery rhymes every day from birth with the important people in their lives.

Let’s Read was developed by the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The Royal Children’s Hospital. The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The Smith Family have partnered to implement Let’s Read with communities across Australia.

Let’s Read supports the development of evidence-based skills, practices and environments that foster emergent literacy development. It is a multi-tiered initiative based on an ecological model of early literacy support. It is designed to increase home literacy resources and build the capacity of both families and professionals to foster children’s emergent literacy skills.

Let’s Read works closely with the Raising Children Network, collaborating to ensure parents, families and caregivers receive consistent messages about the importance of emergent literacy practices.

In July 2012 Let’s Read received significant funds form the Australian Government to support a national early literacy campaign in 2012-13 building on the National Year of Reading 2012.

The Let’s Read Community Program

Let's Read works with communities to promote the importance of early literacy. The Let’s Read community program aims to address the additional literacy challenges faced by children growing up in low socio-economic households and communities.

The Let’s Read Community Program:

  • Trains professionals about the importance of early literacy and how to engage with families and caregivers to help them to support their children’s emergent literacy
  • Supports the Let’s Read universal multi-point intervention which is provided by a trusted community professional multiple times between the birth and five years of age
  • Makes high quality children’s books available at low cost for use in the home and community
  • Provides messages, information and resources that support provision of literacy rich home environments
  • Provides messages and resources to support community approaches to early literacy development and encourage literacy rich experiences in the community
  • Encourages and supports partnerships and initiatives for literacy activities and promotion.

Communities across Australia are using Let’s Read to support families and carers to read with their children from birth. Since 2005, Let’s Read has been delivered in more than 100 disadvantaged communities across seven Australian states and territories, with over 200,000 children participating in the program. In 2013-14 the community program was delivered to almost 10,000 children in approximately 36 communities across the country.

Find a Let’s Read community program | Establish Let’s Read in your community