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"Prior to them going on the program the children were getting bored and restless. I've noticed a change of attitude about reading - wanting to read to the class and when it's silent reading time they're actually reading as opposed to mucking around and looking at the pictures.”
Teacher participating in the program
Each Reading for Life program helps ten to twelve children with a donation of between $3,229 (University students) and $5,980 (volunteers from a company or organisation or the local community) in 2008. These are the costs for the programs run in the Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington metropolitan areas. Additional costs will be incurred for programs run outside these areas. (Running a program using University students will depend on the availability of students.)
The sessions are currently run in schools with the buddy and child working face-to-face alongside other pairs. An online version of the program is currently being developed and trialled and will hopefully be available in 2009.
Reading for Life aims to help children who struggle significantly with
reading. These children would benefit significantly from one-on-one help but do not receive additional support in the classroom. It not only aims to improve children's reading but also their self-esteem and motivation. Through the training of volunteers to provide this support, it aims to achieve positive results for volunteers as well as children and their school.
Ongoing evaluation of Reading for Life demonstrates that children participating have increased their reading accuracy by eight months, reading comprehension by nine months and reading fluency by six months over 15 weeks. Their self-esteem has noticeably improved. Parents, children and the schools have expressed enormous gratitude and the volunteers have expressed pride in their ability to make a difference in a child's life.
Australian data suggests that up to 20% of students have specific learning disabilities or general learning difficulties. This is five children in a regular classroom. Teachers often find it challenging to provide children with individual attention and literacy support and, as a general rule, children with learning difficulties, unlike their peers with more recognisable disabilities, do not have access to additional funding or support.
These children have to work harder to succeed, receive more negative feedback regarding their work, and more often experience feelings of frustration, anger, depression, anxiety, worthlessness and low academic self-esteem. Children who have difficulty learning are often overlooked and labelled 'lazy' or 'underachievers'. Evidence suggests that a child's perception of their academic ability can facilitate their school performance, career orientation and expectations of future success. Learning difficulties not only result in a reduced ability to learn, but have far-reaching social implications including problematic behaviour, poor social relations and often delinquency.
To enhance these children's self-esteem, we need to increase their likelihood of academic achievement. In many cases, one-on-one support is the most effective way to achieve this.
Reading for Life relies on funding and volunteers to run the program. You can either:
- fund the program and provide volunteers from your staff, clients, retired staff or relatives and friends of existing staff to help children through this program; or
- fund the program only to allow parents, grandparents and community members from a school to volunteer as reading buddies; or
- fund the program to allow volunteers from local university programs to become the reading buddies.
If sourced from the local community or your organisation, 15 volunteers are ideal for each program at the identified schools, although the program is flexible and can cater for more or less. Learning Links will train volunteers about children and learning difficulties as well as in the delivery of the
program. Learning Links will be available to support volunteers through the program.
Schools will be identified by Learning Links (or we will be happy for you to specify a school) and Learning Links will liaise with the school to help identify the most suitable children to participate.
Participating children will be tested individually by Learning Links' professionals using standardised tests to determine their learning strengths and needs and their level of reading ability before entering the program. Each child will be paired with a “Reading Buddy".
Contributions to support Reading for Life may or may not be tax deductible and we recommend people interested in contributing to a program seek their own tax advice. Contributions less than the total cost of a program will be joined together with other donations until sufficient money for a program has been received.
How do I give? Please send a cheque or your credit card details to Learning Links, 12-14 Pindari Road, Peakhurst NSW 2210, specifying that your donation is for "Reading for Life".
Is there an allowance for administrative fees? Reading for Life involves liaising with schools, training of volunteers and working with children procedures. This has been included as part of the cost of the program as we do not have any spare funds to cover this cost.
Contact details for further information:
Robyn Collins, General Manager, Marketing and Fundraising
Telephone: (02) 9534 1710
Fax: (02) 9584 2054
Email: rcollins@learninglinks.org.au
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