Sit, Stay, and Read

• RESEARCHSusan Black

Fur struggling students, therapy animals can providethe comfort and support that boosts learning. Is this aprogram that can work in your community?

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~I d',do,""e' As a kid, I spenthours on our back porch reading andsinging to Bootsie, my little cockerspaniel. She cuddled next to me andnever complained, not even when I mis­pronounced mirages as "my rages" andsang "TmnblingTumbleweeds" off-key.

Tenyears ago,the Utah-based ReadingEducation Assistance Dogs (READ)program, developed by InternlountainTherapy Animals, started in a Salt LakeCity public library.Kids curled up in cor­ners and read books to trained, regis­tered, and certified therapy dogs.

That's where the "magic" began,says Anita Stone, a North Carolinajournalist who's tracked the fast-grow­ing trend of using therapy dogs to helpchildren read. The library program wasso successful that, within a year, it wasadopted in several Utah schools.Today, H.EADand similar programs­including BAH.KS(Bonding, Animals,Iteading, Kids and Safety), Sit Staynead, and Paws to Read-are prolifer­ating in schools across the country.

The total nlUnber of dogs used insdlool reading programs is hard to comeby,but Stone says READalone currentlysponsors more than 1,300therapy dogsamI h~Uldlersin schools and libraries.

The numbers are likely to rise, giventhe growing demand for therapy dogs.In Chicago, for instance, six publicschools now have full-year Sit Stay

Read programs, serving nearly 800youngsters. MaryEllen Schneider, theprogram's co-founder and director,says 30 Chicago schools are on a wait­ing list for the coveted canine helpers.

An amazing idea

How do dogs help children learn toread?

A 2007 Edutopia report, sponsoredby The George Lucas EducationalFoundation, describes Reading withRover, a program that has placed some75 dog-and-trainer teams in Seattle­area libraries, bookstores, and schoolsin the past nine years.

Becky Bishop, the program's founder,pairs trained dogs and their handlerswith struggling young readers for one­on-one reading time. At the start of eachsession, a youngster selects a book toread aloud. The therapy dog lies quietly,gazing attentively and often stretching apaw across the child's arm.

The dogs, Bishop says, soothe kidswho once feared shame and ridiculewhen called on to read aloud in class.

Brian Daly, who's taught 20 years atKirkland's Rose Hill Elementary Schoolin Washington, says the idea of second­graders plopping down and reading todogs is "a simple idea, but so amazing."It did take time to implement the idea inhis school. Daly had to persuade schoolofficials to replace a policy that prohib-

ited all animals in classrooms with onethat allowed the use of properly trained,tested, and certified dogs and handlersin the school's reading program.

The dogs were an "instant success,"he says. Daly hasn't collected "harddata," but he says his 7- and 8-year-oldsread books from cover to cover whilecuddling with their canine friends in aclassroom comer. His once reluctantreaders have improved in ability, atti­tude, and attendance, and now, he says,they're "eager to read."

Good dogs, good medicine

"Good dogs are good medicine," saysRachel McPherson, director of the GoodDog Foundation, which provides therapydogs for READprograms in libraries andschools in Connecticut, Massachusetts,New Jersey, and New York.

Medical researcher James Lynch,affiliated with Johns Hopkins Universityand the University of Maryland, nowdirector of Baltinlore's Life Care HealthClinic, recently tested this proposition.He found that children alone in a quietroom had an instant spike in blood pres­sure when they began to read aloud.Their blood pressure quickly loweredwhen a dog entered and wanderedabout tlle room.

Sit Stay Read, which aims to improvelow-income second- and third-graders'reading fluency, asked the University ofIllinois at Chicago's Center for Literacyto administer the DIBELSOral ReadingFrequency standardized test to studentsbefore and after participating in its pro­gram. The children improved their over­all reading scores, and they increasedtheir reading rate by an average of 24words per minute. By contrast, a com­parison group of students, who hadn't

36 American School Board Journal. www.asbj.com• December 2009

participated in the dog therapy pro­gram, increased their reading rate bynine words per minute.

Children also benefit in other waysfrom their dog helpers. Parents say theirchildren wouldn't dream of missing aday when their dog is scheduled to be atschooL Teachers say students do betteron homework and their report cardgrades improve. Both teachers and par­ents say children improve their personalhygiene, inspired by the meticulousgrooming that handlers give their dogs.

Still, success depends on more thanlinking a poor reader with a good dog.

Teachers and librarians must sched­ule uninterrupted weekly time foryoungsters to read to their dog partner.And, says early childhood expert MaryRenck Jalongo in a 2009 report pub­lished in Childhood Education, teach­ers and librarians must abide by "bestpractices in literacy instruction." Forstarters, they must organize a library ofhigh-quality, high-interest books atappropriate reading levels, and theymust allow students the freedom toselect the books they want to read totheir dog.

Success also depends on profession­al training-six months or more-forboth dogs and their handlers.

Handlers must keep their dogsunder constant control-always on aleash and instantly compliant to com­mands. Also, they must practice strate­gies such as modeling the proper wayby which children and adults shouldgreet and praise their dog, and encour­aging struggling readers to explainwords, interpret pictures, and retell thestories they've read to their therapy dog.

School administrators also need todo their part to make sure that therapydog programs get off to a good start.They should:

• Ensure that dogs and handlers arefully trained, registered, and certifiedby a reputable organization.

• Refuse to allow untrained pets tobe used in place of trained dogs.

• Require that safety and liability

issues are clearly defined and adheredto at all times. Work with agencies thatprovide liability insurance.

• Ensure that staff, students, andothers who are allergic to animals orwho are fearful of dogs, are protectedfrom contact.

• Plan a budget and find revenuesources, such as grants and donations,to support the dog therapy program.

• Provide program information toparents and secure permission for theirchild to have contact with therapy dogs.

Serious work

Motivating students to become goodreaders is not the only role dogs play inschools. Some highly trained servicedogs work helping autistic youngstersto socialize and progress in schooL

Quincy, a 16-month-old Labrador­Newfoundland mix, one of 24 dogstrained at Tennessee's WilderwoodService Dogs, is one of those dogs,according to Elizabeth Dorn, a reporterwith Syracuse's Post-Standard.

In school, Quincy is equipped withtwo leashes, one held by his handler,and the other attached to Jake, anautistic first-grader.

The dog gives Jake cues to self-con­troL When Jake starts wandering aboutthe classroom, for instance, Quincytakes charge, lying down to signal hemust return to his desk. When Jake istense and on the verge of a tantrum,Quincy reminds him to remain calmwith a firm nudge. In the school corri­dors, Quincy sets a slow pace to keepJake from pushing and running.

Jake's principal smoothed the wayfor Quincy's arrival. She held grade-levelassemblies to inform teachers and stu­dents about the dog's service work,arranged for staff and students withallergies to avoid contact with the dog,and laid down ground rules. Whenadults say "Quincyis working," studentsknow they cannot pet him or interferewith Jake's learning, she explained.

At home, Quincy and Jake are insep­arable, evidence that the boy and his

dog have developed a strong attach­ment. Jake's mother says the boy nowsleeps through the night, controls hisanxiety, and has fewer tantrums andobsessive-compulsive episodes. Under­standing exactly how Quincy helps Jakein school and at home is under study.Researchers at Tennessee's MaryvilleCollege and Wilderwood are monitoringJake and Quincy,along with seven otherpairs of service dogs and autistic chil­dren, to find answers.

Witness to magic

A few years ago, I visited a special educa­tion classroom in a small rural schooL Toenter the classroom, I had to step overtwo doormats-yellow Labrador retriev­ers named Jake and Bruno.

The first thing I noticed was theremarkable calm in the classroom. Theyoungsters, identified with attentiondeficit disorders and emotional impair­ments, were quietly reading, working onprojects, and discussing ideas with theirteacher. The second thing I noticed wasthat students who became agitated ordistressed walked over to lie next to oneof the dogs, whisper to him, or just ruf­fle his fur for a moment.

At intervals, children took turnsreading to the dogs, feeding and exer­cising them, and putting them in cratesfor "time out"-time off from work.

The teacher, the dogs' owner and cer­tified handler, had trained Jake andBruno to remain in a down/stay positionduring lessons when the children werelearning new skills, such as subtractingtwo-digit numbers. The dogs, positionednext to the teacher, cued the students tobe quiet and attentive. During groupwork, the teacher signaled the dogs tomingle so students could show the dogstheir writing journals and artwork.

I hope that you'll give trained therapydogs a chance. Perhaps the magic I'vewitnessed will begin in your schooL •

Susan Black, an ASBJ contributing editor,is an education researcher and writer in

Hammondsport, N.Y.

American School Board Journal. www.asbj.com • December 2009 37