Learning to read is one of the most important skills a child can learn. It is the key to all future academic success. But some children find learning to read especially difficult and they need effective assistance based on sound scientific principles and research.
Children who have failed to learn to read in the first few years of schooling need intensive, systematic reading instruction if they are not to fall further behind, or even become complete non-readers.
Results from the ‘Making Up Lost Time In Literacy’ (MULTILIT) Initiative show clearly that students with reading problems, taught by our methods, can and do make extraordinary gains in literacy skills over short periods of time—hence, they make up lost time in literacy.
MULTILIT, a research-based initiative of the Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC), in Sydney, Australia, is led by Professor Kevin Wheldall, Director of MUSEC and Director of the MULTILIT Research Unit . Through continuing research and development, he and his team of Australian academic researchers and special educators published the first edition of the MULTILIT Reading Tutor Program in 1998.
The MULTILIT Program incorporates the three key features research shows that effective tuition programs for low-progress readers need to include:
- ‘phonics’ or word attack skills
- sight words recognition; and
- supported book reading in a one to one context.
The MULTILIT Reading Tutor Program (Revised) is specifically designed for teaching students in Year 2 and above (about 7 years of age upwards) who are reading at a level considerably below what might be expected for their age. However, this intensive, one-to-one program of instruction in basic reading skills is effective regardless of age.
MULTILIT continually trials and refines our reading programs in a variety of settings including schools and our own Sydney-based reading clinic. Our community projects help ensure that MULTILIT is also effective and making a difference when undertaken with socially disadvantaged inner-city students and Indigenous students in far north Queensland.
Since 1998, over 2000 teachers and other educational professionals throughout Australia and overseas have successfully implemented the MULTILIT Program to teach thousands of low-progress readers.
The MULTILIT Reading Tutor Program (Revised) and professional training are available to teachers, parents and other professionals.