The key areas of learning addressed Dr Christensen's Early Years Literacy Program include oral language, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, decoding, reading comprehension, handwriting and ability to produce high quality written text.

Research shows that there are sequences of critical understandings that underpin high levels of literacy throughout school. One of these sequences begins with the language that children encounter as infants. Research by Risley shows that parents who talk a lot to their babies have children who: develop higher levels of literacy; are more intelligent; have greater physical development of the brain; and are better socially adjusted, than children whose parents have limited verbal interaction with them. Thus, oral language provides the foundation for the development of all literacy.

Building on their early language experiences, children need to develop a skill called phonological awareness. Phonological awareness refers to the ability to hear sounds in spoken language. Some people confuse phonological awareness with ‘phonics’. However, phonological awareness is a purely oral skill; it has nothing to do with written letters or words. 

There are many different phonological awareness tasks. However, before learning to read, it is critical that children learn to rhyme and identify initial sounds. 

Once they can hear sounds in spoken language, children need to learn to read text (decode). Research shows that the most effective way to build decoding skills is to teach children to use letter-sounds to work out unfamiliar, regular words. Thus, children need to learn letter-sound correspondences and how to use letter-sounds to work out words. They also need to recognise irregular words by sight and to read books that are closely aligned with their decoding skills (i.e. structured, sequenced readers).

When they have developed proficient decoding skills children need to be able to understand (comprehend) what they read. There are many sub-skills related to comprehension. These skills include the ability to build mental images that correspond to the information in the text; capacity to monitor comprehension; and ability to answer questions and draw inferences based on the text.

In order to produce high quality written text, children need skills in spelling and grammar. They also need to be able to generate interesting and original ideas and to sequence those ideas so that they are easy for the reader to follow. Research shows that there is a surprisingly strong relationship between proficiency in handwriting and children’s ability to produce high-quality written text. Thus, handwriting is another important skill to develop.