The Early Years Literacy Program is a collaborative project developed by Tasmania Department of Education and Dr Carol Christensen.

The program is based on research that shows that knowledge and skills developed in the preschool years can have a profound and enduring impact on children's learning and achievement throughout their schooling.

In relation to reading, these skills include: oral language, particularly, vocabulary; and phonological awareness, including the ability to rhyme and identify initial sounds.  These early skills underpin the ability to decode text and reading comprehension which develop as children grow older.

The ability to write creative and well-structured text also emerges from children's early oral language. Written language is influenced by children's overall levels of literacy as well as their capacity to write letters and words on the page (orthographic-motor integration).

The screening measures [Department staff only] developed for the program will be administered at the beginning of the year to ascertain the level of children's emerging knowledge and skills and again at the end of the year to monitor improvement. The aim of the program is to ensure that all children have attained mastery of the key skills by the end of the year.

In 2009 the program is focusing on skills for kinder-prep children and is being trialled in a small number of Department of Education schools. It can then be extended to Years 1 and 2.