Reading Assistance Dogs: READ Literacy Program Helps Immigrant Kids Learn Faster

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) literacy program in US schools and libraries have been helping young immigrants. With the help of therapy dogs under READ, young immigrants are able to acquire literacy in English more swiftly.

Learning Challenge For Young Immigrants

Reuters reports that the READ program was developed, primarily to assist young immigrants transitioning into their new learning environments in the US. The therapy dogs under READ help young immigrants feel more relaxed and less pressured when learning English through books.

Therapy Dogs Are Helping Keep Children In School

The long-term aim of the READ program is to help equip young students as they go through school and continue as far as they can in the education system. Citing the Annie E. Casey foundation, a student's reading level by third grade lends strong clues of a likelihood for the learner to graduate high school.

The less a student is able to catch up with reading skills at grade level three, the less likely this student will graduate from high school by 19. For this reason, the READ literacy program is concentrated on helping immigrant students from kindergarten to third-grade ages.

READ And Its Therapy Dogs Are Making Their Mark Globally 

As many as 175 young immigrants are serviced by READ dogs from New York Therapy Animals. The READ literacy program also has presence throughout the United States.

Furthermore, the READ literacy program and therapy dogs from their affiliates are also present in as many as nine other countries. The READ program was founded by Intermountain Therapy Animals in 1999.

Therapy dogs, such as those under the READ literacy program undergo training before being allowed to sit with young learners. My Suburban Life reports that therapy dog Holly became a reading assistant only after such training.

READ literacy program mostly allocates therapy animals one-on-one with their young charge. However, some therapy dogs may be required to join reading sessions involving a fair-sized group of children and the training comes in handy.