Reading Dogs Become a Feature at JESS

Reading Dogs become a feature at JESS

#CARE #EXCELLENCE

07/10/2022

Reading is essential to unlock learning and JESS are delighted to introduce Reading Dogs to the Primary learning as this has a proven improvement in children’s reading. The JESS Reading Dog service is being started at our JESS Arabian Ranches campus and will be rolled out to our Jumeirah campus shortly.

Studies have shown that reading to a dog helps children relax into reading, open up, try harder and have fun reading. Extremely calm dogs make the perfect reading companions as they don’t judge or correct and allow children to read at their own pace and have been proven to have a calming influence on a class.

Bugsy, a tan-coloured Pug, is the first reading dog to be fully trained at JESS and has five staff handlers who can use his services across the primary school. Bugsy had to undergo lots of training and assessment to ensure he was suitable to be a reading dog within the classrooms and he passed with flying colours. He will now be used in a variety of classes to sit and hear children read to him.

Studies have found reading to dogs offers children the following benefits:

Reading Benefits

Studies show that reading fluency has increased between 12-30% in children after participating in reading dogs programmes
Gives children extra practice with reading and oral skills
Some children feel reading becomes less difficult and become more confident reading aloud
Reading to dogs has motivated children to read more at home, especially to their pets
Children want to try and read more difficult books as they go through the programme
Children feel more confident when answering reading related questions

Emotional Benefits

Children enjoy the programme and think it’s fun. They look forward to coming to the library because they feel the dog is waiting for them.
Children feel comfortable reading to dogs because dogs don’t judge them if they mispronounce a word.
Petting dogs can help with motor skills and is known to be a calming factor as it can reduce stress, blood pressure and anxiety
Children often feel safe when sitting with a dog from the programme
Reading to dogs can boost the confidence of struggling readers and gives them an increased sense of pride
A child can feel like a leader by reading aloud and pretending (s)he is the teacher

Social Benefits

Children learn to take turns while waiting to read to the dog
Children can learn kindness and empathy by petting and interacting with the dog
Communication skills can be improved by practicing reading aloud
Participants enjoy communicating with each other and talking about the session, the dog and the book they read

The Evidence
There have been two key studies carried out on reading dogs in school projects. The University of California Davis Study found: