Program Uses Animals to Help Boost Literacy
Gabriel’s Angels, the only non-profit organization in Arizona that delivers healing pet therapy to at-risk children, announces an innovative program expansion – Animals, Books, and Children, or ABC.
ABC uses Animal-Assisted Reading Activities to both increase literacy competencies, and work to improve the core behaviors of attachment, affiliation, confidence, empathy, respect, self-regulation, and tolerance that Gabriel’s Angels has always focused upon.
The National Institute of Child Health and Development (part of the National Institute of Health), reports that nearly 40 percent of at-risk fourth graders read below basic levels. For children, reading difficulties leads to social and emotional problems, including despair, difficulties with attachment, depression, and anxiety. By incorporating activities designed to improve the aforementioned seven core behaviors, the ABC program can directly address these issues while also improving the children’s reading skills.
A study by University of California-Davis confirmed young students who read out loud to dogs improved their reading skills by 12 percent over the course of a 10-week program, while children in the same program who didn’t read to dogs showed no improvement. Reading to a dog can enhance self-esteem, improve vocabulary, motivate speech, increase knowledge and buildconfidence.
Gabriel’s Angels’ ABC program will service schools that serve at-risk children and provide literacy testing. School staff will identify children that would most benefit from individual reading practice in a safe and non-judgmental environment. Pet therapy teams will visit the school weekly, seeing children individually during a one-hour session – focusing on improving reading skills, comprehension and speed, as well as developing core social behaviors. The series will have a 12-16 week duration. During each session, the child will have time to feel comfortable, work directly on reading skills, and engage in a fun behavioral development activities.
Each series concludes with a celebration and certificate ceremony. Pet therapy teams will administer the San Diego Quick Assessment and all schools will be required to provide state or district pre and post reading test scores so that Gabriel’s Angels can assess program efficacy.
