Introduction In this article a case study is presented of a child who made strong progress with literacy during his first year at school (the Reception year). The child and his family participated in the Literacy Early Action Project (LEAP), a home-visiting intervention scheme during which teaching assistants made weekly home visits and developed literacy support activities with parents and carers for Reception children who were judged by their teachers to be at risk of under achieving in literacy. The LEAP initiative provides what the National Literacy Trust has termed ‘out-of-school-hours literacy support’ (National Literacy Trust, 2005). The need for all children to achieve sound levels of literacy is uncontested. For the individual child, competence in literacy has a considerable impact on the development of positive self-perceptions (Lewis, 1999; Lynch, 2002), while at a societal level success depends on a well educated, highly literate workforce (Riley, 2001). Concern about literacy standards continues to be a dominant theme in policy and academic publications (Tymms, 2004). However, as Hannon (2004) has noted, the advent of the computer and the development of other new technologies has resulted in rapid changes in literacy in recent times. As a consequence, the current pressure on teachers to keep abreast of such developments and to raise standards is exceptionally strong. It is increasingly accepted by educators that the home provides an important underpinning for later learning and that literacy practices at home are contributory factors in children’s success or failure at school (Gregory & Williams, 2004). Another perspective that underpins this article reflects the continuing debate about literacy standards and concerns regarding the degree to which support for literacy learning is sufficiently individualised and flexible. The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) (2005) notes that attainments in English at the end of Key Stage 2 (for children aged 11 years) improved marginally during 2004 and that at Key Stage 1 (when children are aged seven years) there was a similar slight rise in reading. Although OFSTED welcomes this finding – this is the first positive change in literacy standards to be reported by OFSTED since 2000 – there is, nevertheless, a strong emphasis in their report (OFSTED, 2005) on the need to develop a wider range of approaches to support literacy learning. The OFSTED report recommends that schools should explore more flexible and creative approaches for meeting pupils’ specific needs. The case study presented in this article is an example of a school embracing such a flexible approach through the use of a home visiting scheme. The National Literacy Trust (2005) reports that home visiting can be a very effective mechanism for offering support to parents in the familiar surroundings of their home as it can encompass modelling ways of communicating with children. In North America, home visiting has frequently been used as a means for providing support for families with young children. However, Gomby, Culross and Berhman (1999) comment that the outcomes of such home visiting pro- grammes often do not match expectations: 162 British Journal of Special Education  Volume 34  Number 3  2007 © nasen 2007 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 60 RESEARCH SECTION The Literacy Early Action Project (LEAP): exploring factors underpinning progress with literacy for a child in his first year of school Anthony Feiler and Elaine Logan In this article, Anthony Feiler, senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol, and Elaine Logan, lecturer in early years education at the City of Bristol College, present a case study of a child who made strong progress with literacy during his first year at school. The child and his family participated in the Literacy Early Action Project (LEAP), a home-visiting scheme for children judged by school staff to be at risk of struggling with literacy. A teaching assistant made weekly home visits during the year and developed literacy support activities with the child’s mother and grandparents. Five key factors underpinning the child’s progress are identified here: the flexibility in the teaching assistant’s approach that enabled extended family members to become engaged in literacy support; the teaching assistant’s sensitivity to family culture; the playful approach to learning adopted by the teaching assistant; putting the child at the centre of the intervention; and the existence of a school culture that strongly promoted involvement for parents. Anthony Feiler and Elaine Logan conclude that teaching assistants in the UK might be given more scope to develop support strategies for early childhood education that involve collaborative work with parents. Key words: literacy, parents, teaching assistants, home, support, early childhood education.