Language is the foundation for reading development, and I am passionate about developing children’s language skills. 

My name is Mel, and I am the owner of Reading Bees. 

I have spent over 20 years as a speech pathologist and a decade specialising in early literacy development.

As a ‘Speechie’, my job is to improve communication outcomes for my patients. 

Improvement typically happens in the early speech and language development phase when working with young children, well before they are ready to learn to read.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen a clear and direct link between language skills and early literacy development. 

This experience, backed by research on the science of reading, demonstrates that early intervention in language and literacy development significantly impacts overall success.

When I discovered Reading Bees in 2019, I was excited about the opportunity to make a positive impact on children in our community and to create confident learners for life. 

Maureen Pollard, Founder of Little Learners Love Literacy, the evidence-based program Reading Bees follows, reminds us that learning to read is not easy or natural. It is a complex process. 

“Oral language and pre-literacy, phonological awareness skills support early reading and writing development. Skilled readers have good decoding skills (word recognition), understand what they read (comprehension), and read with fluency.”

We know that children with a healthy vocabulary are well-positioned to build a solid foundation for learning to read. This science-backed method underpins everything we do at Reading Bees. 

I was privileged to become the Owner of Reading Bees in 2021. 

Together with our incredible team, we’ve updated and improved our learning program in line with new research. We’ve opened new learning studios across Melbourne, bringing the total to eight in 2026. And we’re not stopping there! 

The latest version of the Reading Bees phonics program aims to prevent and address the reading difficulties I often saw in children as a speech pathologist.

Our enriched Reading Bees program is backed by research and is the fastest, most effective way to teach children to read, spell, write and master early maths concepts. 

The Reading Bees learning program was originally designed for 3 to 5-year-olds before they started school. In 2021, we expanded the successful program to address reading and spelling challenges for school kids, too.

We’re proud to serve 1,000 students each term across 8 learning studios in Melbourne. 

The gift of learning is life-changing.