Digital inequality is locking children out of learning.

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- Literacy programs
  Providing resources and support to help children living with disadvantage achieve the required reading standard.
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  Providing children and young people living with disadvantage with the critical skills, access, and equipment they need.
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  We support early years educators and community professionals in building foundational math skills in children under their care.
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  Learning for Life is an innovative, evidence-based program that supports students throughout their education to achieve positive long-term outcomes for young people experiencing disadvantage.
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  Mentoring programs for students living with disadvantage that provide the encouragement they need to build aspirations for their future.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs
  Our work engages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in learning through education, life skills and role models, promoting culturally responsive practice.
Our learning support and mentoring programs in 90 Australian communities directly help children in need achieve their goals through education.
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Let's Read

Disadvantaged children often miss out on developing the building blocks of early learning.

Children who are read to more frequently at an early age enter school with larger vocabularies and more advanced comprehension skills (Mol & Bus, 2011). Yet without books to stimulate learning in the home, or encouragement from a parent who is aware of its importance, disadvantaged children often don’t have the same shared reading time with their parents or carers as their more advantaged peers.

Alarmingly, disadvantaged children are already well behind their peers by age four, and by age six, many are around seven times more likely than other children to be doing badly at school¹.

Providing early learning resources and support in the home is vital for a child’s future potential.

Mother and daughter sitting on the floor reading

What is Let's Read?

Mother with daughter in her school uniform reading

Let’s Read was developed by the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. The Smith Family implements Let’s Read in partnership with Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Let’s Read provides disadvantaged parents and carers with reading books and support to encourage them to have fun reading with their young children. The program also encourages children to develop a love of books and the ability to name letters and play with the sounds of words.

Children learn more when something is shown to them as well as explained, so Let's Read gives parents and carers clear and simple information by providing a "Share and Show" technique. Participants receive support at four key points in a child’s early years of development – from 4 months, 12 months, 18 months and 3.5 years.

To build on existing relationships within communities, Let's Read is delivered by a range of professionals whom disadvantaged families already trust, such as maternal and child health workers, Early Childhood Workers and local playgroups.

The Smith Family delivers the Let’s Read program by more than 1395 community professionals.

How does Let's Read help?

The Smith Family visited a Youth Health Service to speak to young mums about the importance of early childhood literacy. The young mums were excited to receive their book and loved the helpful hints about how they can successfully read with their child. One young mum commented: 'We don't really know about lots of kid stuff because we're new at this. Everything is a little overwhelming and scary. The Let's Read program helps us help our kids.

Daniel, Learning for Life Program Coordinator

Mother and daughter sitting in a chair reading

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Disadvantaged children often miss out on developing the building blocks of early learning.

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