Early Reading Together:

• is designed to enhance the support which parents provide for their children’s language and literacy development at home
• was developed and first implemented in 1983
• evolved from the wider implementation of Reading Together, a workshop programme which:
  - helps parents provide effective support when their child (usually from 5½ years onwards) is reading to his/her parent(s) at home
  - was developed within an experimental action-research project at Canterbury University in 1982
  - has been widely implemented throughout NZ since 1982
  - has been shown to be highly effective in enhancing children’s social and academic development
• meets the need expressed by teachers and parents for an effective family language/literacy programme to support younger children
• incorporates key features and processes of Reading Together 

Early Reading Together is:

• a low-cost group programme which helps parents of young children (babies to 5 and 6 year olds) to support their children's language and literacy development at home
• designed to enhance the language and literacy practices of the home
• specifically designed to support children and parents from diverse language/literacy, cultural, educational and socio-economic backgrounds
• practical, user friendly, enjoyable and manageable for teachers, parents, librarians and children
• based on a sound theoretical and research framework
• implemented on a voluntary basis by junior school teachers, early childhood educators and librarians

Early Reading Together is designed to help parents:

• Understand more fully the ways in which talking with young children and reading to them (from the time they are babies) helps the child's language and literacy development
• Explore additional ways of supporting children's language and reading development when they are reading stories and rhymes, and singing songs together
• Find out more about books, rhymes and songs which are suitable for young children and enjoyable for them
• Borrow books and other resources from libraries and access support from librarians, if they are not already doing so