International Citations relating to Early Reading Together®

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) published a report in 2023 titled Smart Futures: Pedagogical recommendations to support learning continuity between early childhood care and education and home settings.

The following excerpt is from Resource 9 - Strategies to promote reading with families (page 51) of this report:

Early Reading Together® in New Zealand

This programme brings together key actors to support families in developing language and literacy skills. It involves families participating in three workshops of one hour over three weeks, covering essential tips for language development and reading, and enjoying literature with children and at home.

It is designed to be culturally relevant and to address different types of families with different backgrounds. It involves using stories and rhymes, and singing songs, and access to books and printed material.

Link to more information:
www.readingtogether.net.nz/early-reading-together.html

The Economist Group - The Learning Ecosystems Framework

"Promoting collaborative and dynamic learning opportunities to achieve positive educational and wellbeing outcomes for young people."

In 2022, a report was published based on the findings of The Learning Ecosystems Framework, developed by Economist Impact (part of The Economist Group). The report and research were commissioned by Jacobs Foundation.

Excerpts follow from The Learning Ecosystems Whitepaper available here:

Home learning environment: There’s no place like home

The home is a child’s first school. The character and features of the home environment - including the quality and security of relationships and the availability of various resources - create the foundations of healthy development, learning, and ongoing levels of wellbeing and happiness. The Learning Ecosystems Framework captures the key enablers of a supportive home environment that foster growth across physical, cognitive, social and emotional developmental pathways to set young people up for success within their academic and personal lives. [Page 25]

Case study 5. Supporting parents to support children

Research has shown positive effects of programmes aimed at developing the literacy of parents on their child’s school performance, language and literacy development.
...
In another example, from New Zealand, schools and community-based education providers facilitate the Reading Together® and Early Reading Together® workshops for children and their parents. These enable parents to effectively read and talk to their children and develop a strong literacy and language foundation. [Page 27]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The December 2017 OECD publication Educational Opportunity for All: Overcoming Inequality throughout the Life Course, is from the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.

Quoting from here:

Equitable educational opportunities can help to promote long-lasting, inclusive economic growth and social cohesion. Successful education and skills policies can empower individuals to reach their full potential and enjoy the fruits of their labour, regardless of their circumstances at birth. However, as this report shows, far too many children, students and adults from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds fall behind. In many countries, substantial learning gaps exist between students at opposite ends of the socio-economic scale, and these differences tend to increase in the transition into adulthood. All countries have ample room for improvement to ensure better learning outcomes for all. Early childhood education has been identified as an important element in future success, and requires investment, as do family and community-based support and programmes for children from families that have not attained a high level of education and skills.

An excerpt from page 70 of the OECD publication:

Box 3.4. Examples of inclusive ECEC policies
In an effort to promote social cohesion, some governments have implemented inclusive ECEC policies that cater to disadvantaged children, parents and communities. The 2012 OECD report, Starting Strong III: A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care, gives examples of such programmes that have been successfully designed and implemented. These programmes aim to increase the quality and the amount of education children receive, while also remaining affordable, accessible and equitable. Starting Strong III highlights programmes that aid a range of vulnerable groups. These groups include young parents, parents with low levels of education, low-income parents and communities, migrants, infants, and indigenous people.

An excerpt from page 71:

Skills targeting has been a successful initiative for vulnerable families in New Zealand and Canada
Programmes in both Canada and New Zealand have sought to target particular skills that disadvantaged families and children struggle with. The Parent-Child Mother Goose programmes in British Columbia provide a safe place for families and children to develop socio-emotional skills, literacy, and language support. The Early Reading Together® programme in New Zealand also supports literacy and language development through home-based learning for children ages zero to six. This project specifically targets parents from "diverse language/literacy, cultural, educational and socio-economic backgrounds" (OECD, 2012). The programme relies on volunteer professionals, and has been proven to increase parental reading comprehension and literacy. In turn, these gains enable parents to read and explore language more frequently with their children at home.

The 2012 OECD Report Quality Matters in Early Childhood Education and Care: United Kingdom (England) outlines the Early Reading Together® programme. Quoting from page 71 of the OECD Report:

Assisting parents to provide qualitative home learning environments
In New Zealand, the Early Reading Together® initiative has been implemented. It is a programme which helps parents of young children (infants to six-year-olds) to support their children's language and literacy development at home and is specifically designed to support children and parents from diverse language/literacy, cultural, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. ... Its results include increased competence of parents in assisting their children at home with reading.