Support at Home for Early Language and Literacies (SHELLS): Collaboration and Challenge

Abstract

The project, “Support at Home for Early Language and Literacies (SHELLS)”, is an early literacy intervention designed to empower the families of young children between birth and three years of age in their role as their children's first literacy teachers. SHELLS’ content is based on participant interests, current knowledge about children's literacy learning in the years prior to school entry, and growing acceptance of the importance of learning in the first three years of life. SHELLS began in 1997 and currently operates with both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous families in rural and regional areas of New South Wales, Australia. In this paper, the project and some of the future challenges are discussed. It is suggested that the collaborative and flexible model that has been developed for SHELLS has the potential to assist families from a range of social, cultural, economic and geographical settings in supporting their children's early literacy learning.