MULTILIT, (or ‘Making Up Lost Time in Literacy’) is a research-based initiative of Macquarie University, which aims to address the needs of students with reading disabilities and similar problems from Year 2 to high school by providing an intensive, structured, systematic program of instruction in reading and related skills carried out within a Positive Teaching environment.
MULTILIT began in 1995 as the MULTILIT Research and Development Initiative at the Macquarie University Special Education Centre, led by Professor Kevin Wheldall, a research psychologist specialising in the area of learning and behaviour difficulties in children. In 1998, Professor Wheldall and his team of academic researchers and special educators developed and published the first edition of the MULTILIT Reading Tutor Program, based on the key components for effective tuition programs for low-progress readers, as identified by research.
Since then, through continuing research and development, MULTILIT has provided assistance to thousands of low-progress readers through a variety of settings, including schools, our own Sydney-based reading clinic, and community projects in New South Wales and far north Queensland. Teachers and other educational professionals are now also able to use the MULTILIT program to help low-progress students make up lost time in literacy.
The MULTILIT Research Unit was established in 2006 as the focus for continuing research, which ensures the development of new programs and the refinement of existing methods and materials are underpinned by evidence-based principles and proven methodologies for teaching reading.