Underpinning philosophy

Let’s Read is designed to encourage parents to have fun reading with their young children, to help develop a love of books and the ability to name letters and play with the sounds of words. These are the building blocks that will help children learn to read and write when they get to school.

After looking at the research, Let’s Read has been based on the following beliefs:

• Parents need to understand the importance of reading with their young child and how to do it. They need to have clear and simple information, as well as being shown the techniques – “Share and Show”. We learn more when something is shown to us, as well as explained.
• The “Share and Show” about reading to a young child needs to be given to a parent more than once, because:
  • the messages given to the parent needs to relate to the age of their child,
  • to get anyone to try something new, they need to be given ongoing encouragement and support.
  Let’s Read is designed to be delivered at four points during a child’s development, these being from 4 months, 12 months, 18 months and 3½ years.

• The best person to “Share and Show” with a parent to promote the reading messages is a community based professional that the family trusts. This means that lots of different professionals within a community should promote the reading messages, so that all families can be reached. Different families trust and respect different professionals to give them advice and support in raising their child.
• The professionals that “Share and Show” should be trained and provided with high quality resources to give to parents. This will help make sure that parents get consistent and accurate messages. Let’s Read provides training for professionals and has age specific parent information sheets to reinforce the messages. There is also a DVD to encourage parents, and this includes some books being read aloud. The DVD is great for parents/carers that are illiterate or have a low literacy level.
• A community approach is essential as it will:
  • identify and build on the existing services and systems and reach more families,
  • support the long term planning and sustainability of the program.
  Let’s Read provides a Community Facilitator and a Community Guide to support the planning and implementation of the program.
• Exactly how a community implements the Let’s Read program will be determined at a local level. There are some specifications, such as the stages when the program should be delivered by community-based professionals and the types of messages that should be promoted but the exact structures and systems will be at the community’s discretion.