Fellow:          Lee-anne Hewer
                      Senior Speech Pathologist
                      WA Country Health Service Midwest & Murchison

Year:              2005

Title:              Evaluation of the implementation of an early literacy program in the Geraldton and Midwest region

Summary

Strong literacy skills are essential to academic success. Children’s early preschool exposure to reading is an important step in helping children to develop literacy skills in later schooling. An early literacy program has been run in Geraldton and the Midwest since June 2002 and is the subject of this evaluation.

The local program aims to improve early literacy development by supplying parents with an appropriate book and information on reading to children from nine months of age. A mixed method design was used to evaluate the implementation of the early literacy program. An audit of child health records was used to determine the reach of the program. A semi-structured set of questions was used to evaluate the implementation of the program by Child Health Nurses (CHNs). Further exploration of issues specific to improving implementation for Indigenous families was done through meetings with key community Indigenous organisations.

Analysis of the child health records found that 63.2% of children attended the 7-9 month health check in Geraldton and the Midwest. Of these more than 97% received a book package. A barrier to the successful implementation of the program was its dependence on attendance at the health check. This was especially so for the Indigenous population with a significantly lower attendance rate. Poor training also resulted in variations in delivery of the program. These two areas are addressed through recommendations to broaden the scope of the delivery of the book package in time frame and location and to develop appropriate training for CHNs.

A paper arising from this project has be published in Contemporary Nurse in August 2006