Reading Has Gone to the Dogs! HSKC Dogs, That Is

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but they also might be man’s best listener, at least in Kent County where we might have some of the most well “read-to” dogs on the Eastern Shore.

Horizons at Radcliffe Creek School and the Humane Society of Kent County have teamed up this summer to create a reading program to help children increase their reading fluency and boost their self-confidence.

Often self-conscious about reading in public or sensitive about difficulties they might be having with word recognition, kids at the Horizon-HSKC reading project are finding out that their four-pawed pals have all the patience and appreciation in the world. They’ll wait, paws crossed as a child works it out.

Randy Decker, Director of the Reading Dogs initiative at Radcliffe is pleased with the project’s success.

“It’s really a great process, “ he says. “In education, specifically in reading skills, teachers will too often jump in to help a child pronounce a word. It’s reflexive. But a dog will just sit their patiently while the child figures it out.”

Decker, who has been involved with similar programs in the past, sees the kids gain confidence and overcome the shyness they might have in a more judgmental environment.

“The dogs are non-judgmental listeners, so the kids take a few more risks than usual. I’ve heard stuttering ease up as they bond with their listeners. They’re very attentive and want the dogs to actually hear the story. On one occasion at the session’s end, a child was a little alarmed that his reading buddy didn’t get to know how the story ended.”

The dogs are brought in each week from the Humane Society of Kent County and introduced to children by their handlers. Currently, the three reader dogs—Reggie, Jack and Spirit—are handled by Shawna Sutton, Hallie Landon and the HSKC President, Jane Welsh, who sit with the children during their reading periods.

“We first teach the kids how to approach a dog safely by extending their hand slowly and letting the dog sniff, while asking the dog’s owner for permission to pet,” says Carolyn Thompson, Director of Community Engagement for Humane Society of Kent County.

The ‘reader dogs’ are then walked to three separate areas of the school where kids had the opportunity to sit with them and read uninterrupted for 15 to 20 minutes. As one girl read excitedly from her book, she made sure to flip the book around to share the illustrations with her furry and attentive listener.

Canines have an illustrious presence in the therapy, teaching and medical worlds. From teams of therapy dogs sent to Newtown, Ct. schools after the traumatic Sandy Hook shootings in 2012, and after the 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado to wounded veterans suffering from PTSD and  autistic children, dogs have become powerful healing partners to many.

Dogs are now even being trained to alert diabetic owners if their blood glucose levels are becoming dangerously low. Peggy Law at Service Dogs of Virginia in Charlottesville says that the dogs are trained to recognize the odor associated with the low blood sugar of extreme Type 1 diabetics. “The dog—usually Labradors— will bump against its owner and it’s like they are saying ‘something has come to my attention,’ and they will be persistent if the owner delays taking care of it, she says.

The International Reading Association cites a study done by researchers at UC Davis that confirmed earlier studies about the positive learning effect reader dogs have on children. After ten once-a-week sessions, readers improved their reading skills of fluency and accuracy by 12% over a control group.

The HSKC dogs are carefully chosen for their listening assignments. “Some of the dogs come from pretty harsh backgrounds, so they’re being re-introduced to a kinder world. In once case, one of the very shy pups is starting to gain confidence along with the kids. Last week we had to carry a very nervous Jack into the school. This week he wanted to come into the reading classes on his own,” Thompson said. “Socializing makes our dogs even more adoptable.”

Hallie Landon, HSKC’s Office Manager, even adopted one of shelter’s dogs for herself and has been training him as a reader dog during the Horizons program. “Spirit,” a gentle Malamute/Australian Cattle dog mix looked on inquisitively as her reader turned the pages.

The Horizons Program at Radcliffe Creek has been providing summer enrichment programs for children since 1995. The children are often recommended by the principals and counselors at their public or elementary schools. The gala “Showstoppers II” was part of the Horizons program.

 

 

For more information about the Humane Society of Kent County. go here.

To find out about Horizons at Radcliffe Creek School, go here.