Study: Reading to Dogs Helps Children Learn to Read

For young kids, one of the big challenges in learning to read is the embarrassment of making mistakes. Reading to dogs provides a simple solutiona non-judgmental, comforting furry friend who “listens” and takes the pressure off a child as he stumbles. A study this year by researchers at the University of California Davis confirmed that children who read to Fido really do perform better. 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. http://abcn.ws/apnNeh

Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ).