Vol, 7, No. 4: January 28, 2008		Get SEAchange by email

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6. Animals help students read in Stevens Point

Dogs and cats can be excellent partners in mastering reading, despite the animals' lack of knowledge of the written word--or perhaps because of it.

In the Stevens Point Area School District, participants in the Portage County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) bring a cat or dog to meet 2nd and 3rd graders, who read to the animal. The pet is non-judgmental—in fact, usually loves the attention—which makes the unknown territory of reading seem a lot more inviting to reluctant students.

It's called Paws for Reading, and it's part of a movement started by Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.). There are R.E.A.D. associate programs in nearly every state, including Wisconsin.

Portage County RSVP Coordinator Marti Sowka says one of the advantages of working with a volunteer program like RSVP is that it carries liability insurance--just in case the animals get a little too excited, say by the power of the written word.

Another way to find dogs with insurance is to work through a therapy dog organization such as Therapy Dogs International or the Delta Society.

The Central Wisconsin chapter of Therapy Dogs International runs read-to-dogs programs in its area. The group's director, Steve Fisher, is also a retired high school English teacher who has taken his own dogs to participate in the reading programs. "It was really fun. I can tell you, if you asked some of these children in the classroom, 'little Johnny, do you want to read that?' they wouldn't do it. But with the dogs, they have a great time. You could even try some tricky reading words. . . We printed up trading cards with the name and picture of each dog on them. [Kids] wanted to collect the whole set of every dog over the summer!"

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Last updated on 1/28/2008