Therapy dogs may not be considered service dogs, but they are still there to help improve our lives. And for children, this can include helping with reading skills.
Did you know that one of the things that a therapy dog can help with is reading skills? In fact, if you look at the American Kennel Club‘s page on what exactly a therapy dog is, one of the first things you find is a line in which they say that one of the ways these pups help improve our lives is by “working with a child who is learning to read.”
While it may not be common knowledge, there are actually programs around the country that not only train, but also provide people with therapy dogs that are capable of assisting children with learning how to read, according to Lifehacker.
Essentially, what these dogs do is help lower your child’s anxiety when it comes to reading. Thanks to their ability to be empathetic, dogs are the perfect companion when it comes to lowering our anxieties. And as children, it can be difficult to learn reading skills, leading to this anxiousness.
However, if your child is reading to a dog, there is no need to be worried. The dog is not going to judge you, correct you, or make you feel bad in any way. Which is why, reading therapy dogs are the perfect choice when trying to help your child learn to read.
Of course, even if your pup is not a trained therapy dog, that doesn’t mean they can’t help with those reading skills. Most dogs are happy to have our companionship, so as long as there is a dog in your home, why not have your child read to them? In fact, a study out of California has found that children who read to their dogs are able to improve their reading skills by up to 12 percent in comparison to children who are only reading to the adults in their lives.
Considering how much our dogs do for us, this likely comes as no real surprise. However, it is certainly something to think about as our children get older. With the help of man’s best friend, children can grow to be better readers with less anxiety and an ability to improve their skills that is worth talking about.
Did you know that there are therapy dogs trained to help with children’s reading skills? Would a therapy dog be something you used to help with education? Tell us what you think in the comments.