Reading Education Therapy Dogs

Good Morning America had a story this morning about a new therapy dog program:

Reading to a dog.

The idea is that children learn to read best when practicing aloud. Many are loathe to practice aloud in the classroom out of fear of being judged by other people. Dog are all comforting and non-judgmental. The GMA story focused on using the program with children living in shelters for homeless families, as they are at such high risk for stalling out in school.

I googled it to try to find the name of the organization that sponsors the program, but didn’t find it in the GMA website. I found something very similar was on CBS a few years ago. The part that struck me was the skeptical principal that gave it a try because she knew that if kids aren’t reading at grade level by 2nd grade, we start to lose them. Apparently, 40% of 4th grade students are reading below grade level.

Reading Education Assistance Dogs is a program of Intermountain Therapy Animals. Here is the 2006 story from CBS:



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