The couple, who did not want to be named, saw how their son progressed and developed with personalised one-on-one support. He is now an accomplished professional.
After that experience, the couple approached the Southland Foundation in a hope to boost literacy for children across the region.
From that the Southland Literacy Endowment Fund pilot was created.
Chief executive Sarah Hannan said they worked with the couple, school principals and literacy support teachers about the best way to address the challenges.
"The key is early intervention.
"The fund is designed to provide financial assistance for children in the region to receive the literacy support they need, ensuring that no child is left behind in their educational journey."
Mrs Hannan said they discovered the oral language programme was a very important tool for fostering literacy.
The programme focuses on helping 5-year-olds, especially those who need extra support, develop crucial communication skills — a foundation for reading success.
By enhancing listening, speaking, and comprehension abilities at an early age, this initiative strengthened the literacy skills children needed to excel in their later years of education, she said.
"A lot of children are coming to school without oral language and if you can’t speak, if you don’t have words, you essentially won’t be able to read."
The pilot was launched in two schools, Waverly Park School and Donovan Primary School last month, and the progress will be monitored throughout the year.
"The good thing about it as well is the fact that the fund will help train teacher aides.
"So it’s not putting further pressure on teachers who’ve got a new curriculum and all sorts of things happening this year.
"It’s about getting really good teacher aides, upskilling them to do one-to-one intervention."
Literacy support specialist Helen Campbell will co-ordinate the programme, offering training and support to teacher aides who will work one-on-one with the children.
"This is such a privilege to be involved in this pilot and to help shape a programme that I truly hope can be rolled out region-wide in time.
"It’s exciting to be part of something that can make such a meaningful difference for so many children here in Southland," Mrs Campbell said.
She said throughout the year they would be testing and measuring the impact of the initiative and the future of it would rely on more generous donations.
She said it would allow the programme to grow and ensure every child who needed literacy support could access it.
"We think it’s such a great programme to get off the ground because education is so important and those foundation years are so important."
