How a Therapy Dog May Inspire Student Literacy Engagement in the Elementary Language Arts Classroom (original) (raw)
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Research conducted by New, Wilson and Netting (1986) identified that pets are an integral component of the social support network for many individuals with 95% of those surveyed saying that they talk to their pet, 82% identifying that their pet assists them when they are feeling sad and 65% stating that touching their pet makes them feel better. Pets, in particular dogs, have been used in therapy and education situations for a number of years, and their presence has had a number of positive impacts, including helping withdrawn children to talk and participate (Heimlich, 2001), aiding in social and cognitive development of children (Martin and Farnum 2002) and overcoming learning difficulties such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder and Autism (Scott, Haseman and Hammetter 2005). While there is some research about the educational benefits of dogs in the learning environment, (Jenkins, 2010), there is a need for further research about the impact of dogs in th...
A number of children struggle with literacy, social/emotional skills and motivation to attend school. While there are a number of initiatives to support these children, an imaginative method of support is through our canine companions. The Delta Society Classroom Canines TM program provides assistance to children identified as having difficulties with literacy learning and/or social/emotional skills. Through the program, a trained dog and handler visit a school on a weekly basis and work with children in a classroom setting. This research investigated the impact of the Classroom Canines TM program on the reading and social/emotional skills of selected students at a primary school in Queensland, Australia. It utilized both quantitative and qualitative data, including reading scores, attendance records, classroom observations, artefacts (work samples), interviews with teachers and students, and researcher journals. Findings from the study support the benefits of dog-assisted programs ...
Anthrozoös, 2019
This study investigated whether dogs might facilitate a context conducive to reading for children when they are faced with a challenging reading passage. A within-subjects design was used to assess children's motivation to read in two conditions: with a therapy dog and without a therapy dog. Seventeen children (8 girls; 9 boys) in Grades 1 to 3 (aged 6-8 years) and their parents participated in this study. Results of a multivariate repeated-measures ANOVA with two levels suggested that the presence of a therapy dog positively impacted children's reading motivation and persistence when they were faced with the task of reading a challenging passage. Specifically, children confirmed feeling significantly more interested and more competent when reading in the presence (versus absence) of a therapy dog. Additionally, participants spent significantly more time reading in the presence of the therapy dog than when they read without the therapy dog present. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use a within-subjects design to explore children's reading motivation and reading persistence during a canine-assisted reading task. Moreover, as canine-assisted reading interventions assume that the reading context is one that may present a challenge, this research is unique because the reading passages were carefully selected and assigned to each participant to ensure that each child was provided with a challenging reading task. This research holds implications for the development of a gold-standard canine-assisted intervention for young struggling readers.
The Impact of a Therapy Dog Program on Children’s Reading Skills and Attitudes toward Reading
Early Childhood Education Journal, 2015
main effect for the reading program. Combining the first 2 years of the program yielded a large enough sample for a comparison of ELL students with non-ELL students in kindergarten. These data showed significantly higher reading scores for students enrolled in the dog program relative to the control for both ELL and non-ELL students, again accounting for earlier reading scores. These findings demonstrate the need to analyze at-risk subgroups as well as the need to apply a longitudinal lens in researching both dogassisted literacy programs and participant progress.
Child & Youth Care Forum, 2013
Background Children with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) struggle with behavioral problems during reading activities in school. One way to address these concerns may be through dog reading programs which are increasing in popularity in schools and libraries. Preliminary anecdotal research suggests dog reading programs may improve academic engagement behavior for students with EBD who struggle with reading. Objective The purpose of this pilot study was to systematically evaluate the effects of a dog reading visitation program on academic engagement behaviors of elementary aged children with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Methods Participants included three elementary aged students with emotional behavioral disabilities. A multiple probe single case design across students was used to examine the impact of the dog reading program on on-task-reading aloud behaviors. During baseline and maintenance conditions, students read aloud to themselves while during intervention, students read aloud to a therapy dog. Results The results indicated that all three students experienced increases in on-task behaviors during intervention and maintained improvements over time. Conclusion Students indicated they enjoyed the dog reading program and increased ontask behavior was observed. Social validity was conferred by the teacher who observed improvements in behavior during intervention. Suggestions for future research include expanding the study with more participants, examining the students reading skills in addition to behavior, incorporating dogs or other animals into other reading activities, and examining the impact of animals in other academic interventions.
Sit Stay Read: Improving Literacy Skills Using Dogs
Dimensions of Early Childhood, 2014
Positive reasons (and tips) to consider involving dogs in your literacy instruction. Walk into Laura Stinson’s Pre-K classroom and you will see lots of happy faces all excited about reading. While this may not be unusual to observers, what is a bit strange is the help the children have sitting next to them on the reading mat. Laura uses the help of a canine literacy specialist, D.D. McGuffey, and her students’ reactions make it clear that reading time is one of their favorite times of all! D.D. also makes no bones about the fact that she loves the children and that listening to them read and spending time with them is the highlight of her week as well.
Effects of animal-assisted education on reading with a group of elementary students
2020
Introduction: Animal assisted education (AAE) disseminates the use of animals as pedagogical resource. Dog-assisted reading is the most researched intervention in AAE and its results show improvement in student reading performance in the presence of therapy dogs. Objective: Describe the effects of AAE in reading motivation and performance for a group of 5th graders. Method: The study had the participation of 6 subjects averaging 10.9 years old 2 males and 4 females in a 5th year classroom of a municipal school. The research was experimental, interventional and qualitative. Each subject participated in six 20-minute read aloud sections, the first five with and the last one without the presence of the dog. Before the sessions, the subjects answered the questionnaire about the contact with animals and reading activities and after the sessions, the questions regarding the relation between AAE and reading. The answers were described to construct the individual profiles and the sessions w...
Reading to Dogs at Home: A Pilot Study
Early Childhood Education Journal
2001). Many similar studies have since followed also showing promise but lacking methodological rigour as evidenced by Hall et al. (2016) who reviewed the corpus of literature in this area and found most research to be of low quality. However, findings from more recent empirically sound studies using, for example, control or comparison groups, randomization, and standardized assessments, supports the results of earlier, less objective studies and find that-AAIs with dogs do indeed have a positive impact on children's reading performance. For example, le Roux et al. (2014) randomly assigned grade 3 children to read to a dog, an inanimate object, an adult, or no one for 10-weeks. They found that children in the dog-led condition outperformed children in the other conditions in terms of their reading comprehension, rate, and accuracy. In 2017 Levinson et al. compared the oral reading fluency of children in grades 2-5 before and after reading to a dog or a peer for 5 weeks, then swapped conditions for the same amount of time. They found that when reading to a dog the youngest children's reading skills benefited the most. Most recently, research by Syrnyk et al. (2022) examined 24 struggling readers in grade 3 who were exposed to a 15-minute-long dog-assisted literacy intervention once a week for 8 weeks. Following completion, children were then assigned to an adult-assisted intervention or vice versa (i.e., half of the participants experienced the adult intervention first and half experienced the dog intervention
The International Journal of Literacies, 2015
New, Wilson and Netting's 1986 research demonstrated that domestic animals are an integral component of many people's social support network. While such animals, particularly dogs, have since been successfully used as therapy dogs in clinical situations since the 1960s, the use of dogs in the learning environment has only recently been trialled. Turner (2011) evaluated the use of dogs within the adult learning environment, ultimately concluding that dogs can be a beneficial bridge between adults and education. Jenkins (2009) and Sorin (2012) investigated the value of dogs within the primary school system, finding benefits including enhanced literacy, and improved social skills. Bassette and Taber-Doughty (2013) found that on-task behavior increased in primary school students with emotional and behavioural disabilities through a dog reading program. Increasingly, the value of dogs within a variety of learning environments, is being recognized. In Australia, the Delta Society's 'Classroom Canines' program, where children read to dogs, was developed to assist children with literacy and/or social/emotional skills. This research investigated the impact of the Classroom Canines TM program on the reading, social/emotional skills and motivation to attend school of 11 students, aged 5-11, in a primary school in Australia. All students had been identified as falling below, or being at risk of falling below, the academic benchmarks for their year level. The study used both quantitative and qualitative data, including reading scores, attendance records, classroom observations, interviews with teachers and students, and researcher journals. The study found that reading scores and attendance improved, but further that children were more motivated to learn, felt better about themselves as learners, and seemed to get along better with their peers.