USA : Thursday, 13 January 2011 (Local Time)
Elaina Ayers of Livonia, Michigan - was a shy kindergartner who didn't like to read out loud.
Now in second grade, she reads confidently in public, sounding out words she doesn't know, not even minding if people she's never met before are listening in.
Elaina's mother, Provvidenza, attributes much of her daughter's improvement in reading to Daisy the therapy dog, who listens to Elaina read once a month at the Livonia Civic Center Library.
“Dogs do not judge anyone,” Provvidenza Ayers said. “It's helped her to gain that confidence.”
Daisy is a 7-year-old pedigreed Vizsla, or Hungarian bird-hunting dog, who has volunteered at the library for the past four years to listen to children read with her owner, Belinda Tantalo of Plymouth.
Daisy is registered with Therapy Dogs International. She didn't receive any special training to become a therapy dog, Tantalo said. Instead, she was tested and found to have the right kind of temperament for therapy dog work.
At first, Tantalo took Daisy to nursing homes. But while the nursing home residents loved her, Tantalo found that Daisy didn't behave as appropriately as she should have. So Tantalo put together some packets of information about Daisy and offered her services to libraries.
“She does better just sitting there listening (to children read),” her owner said.
She's been volunteering at the Livonia library ever since.
Parents call ahead to make appointments for their children to read to Daisy for 10-minute intervals. The program is open to beginning readers ages 6 and older. Tantalo stays with Daisy and the children in the children's area of the library while the parents leave to eliminate any kind of pressure the children might be feeling.
Tantalo tells the children that if they come to a word they don't know, they can skip over it. Or, if the book is too hard, they can just make up a story, which is what Elaina did at first.
“She just wants to hear you,” Tantalo tells the children.
Of course, Daisy never corrects or interrupts the children or judges their reading — and neither does Tantalo. Sometimes they will ask Tantalo how to pronounce a word they don't recognize, and Tantalo will say, “Let's see if Daisy knows” and then she has Daisy “whisper” the word into her ear.
Many of the children believe Daisy understands the story, even though it's all “gibberish” to her, Tantalo said.
Rachel Charette, head of children's services for the Livonia library, said children love reading to Daisy. The program works, she said, because it gives them a chance to practice reading out loud in a welcoming, non-threatening environment.
“There's not someone there judging them, correctly them, just a smiling dog they can pet at the end,” she said.
Typically, five to 10 children are signed up for each session. Many, like Elaina, are regulars.
Last month, a girl with autism read to Daisy. When the girl arrived, she talked unintelligibly about numbers. Then, as the girl turned each page, she simply “read” the title of the book over and over again. When she finally started reading for real, she read in a straight monotone.
“Her reaction to this girl was no different,” Tantalo said of Daisy. “From the dog's point of view, we're all autistic.”
Story and Foto : www.hometownlife.com (reported by Karen Smith)
