Professor Kevin Wheldall is a research psychologist and Professor of Education at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is also Director of Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC). After researching and writing extensively in the area of learning and behaviour difficulties in children for over twenty five years, in both Australia and the UK, he combined his interests in effective classroom behaviour management and the effective instruction of older low-progress readers and initiated in 1995 the MULTILIT Research and Development Initiative at MUSEC to provide a focus for his future work.

MULTILIT, which stands for 'Making Up Lost Time In Literacy' aims to address the needs of older students with reading disabilities and similar problems from Year 2 to high school age by providing an intensive, structured, systematic program of instruction in reading and related skills carried out within a Positive Teaching environment. Building on the earlier successes of both classroom programs operating in MUSEC School and programs designed for use in outreach settings, most notably the STEP UP Program (Single Term Educational Program for Under-achieving Pupils), MULTILIT takes many forms. Since 1996, the MULTILIT Centre, the Schoolwise Program, the MULTILIT School Program and a number of smaller outreach operationalisations have ensured steady progress in both research and development of methods and materials. This early research on MULTILIT (1996-1998) is detailed in the report commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA, now DEST) entitled 'An Evaluation of MULTILIT' (Wheldall & Beaman, 2000).

In October, 2002 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training released its Report on the Inquiry into the Education of Boys - 'Boys: Getting it Right', endorsing MULTILIT and the work of the MUSEC team as follows:

"The knowledge and practical instructional techniques developed in MULTILIT by the researchers at Macquarie University should inform and enhance the initial and remedial literacy instruction throughout Australia and form the core of remedial reading programs in primary and high schools." (5.62 p. 114)