Our local library (Muncie Public Library) has a “Paws to Read” program that utilizes therapy dogs to help children with anxiety disorders to manage their anxiety through reading aloud to a certified therapy dog. Each session is 15 minutes long. Children choose a book and curl up with a warm, fuzzy friend to journey into the kinds of worlds that can only be reached through books. The children know that their listener will not laugh at them or chastise them if they stumble over new words, or read too slowly. Their listener sits closely and attentively, emitting a sense of wonder and encouragement, and praising the child with licks and a happy, wagging tail.
The program stared in July, 1009 during the summer reading program. A patron asked the librarians about doing such a project and they were favorable toward the idea. By the fall of 2009, the program became so popular that nearly all the time slots are filled up a week or more in advance. Even children without anxiety disorders can benefit from the program because the activity, reading aloud to an attentive canine, creates comfort and confidence while providing a safe environment to practice a very important skill. Honestly, I wish I’d had this opportunity when I was a young child, I may have learned to read much earlier!
There seems to be no end to the jobs that therapy dogs can perform and the role they can play in helping to increase people’s quality of life.
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