Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
It's not everyone who can say that within three weeks of launching a pilot program, a story about the program's success appeared on the front page of Wall Street Journal. Yet, when the Reading Education Assistance Dogs, or R.E.A.D. Program, launched at the Salt Lake City Library in 1999, it took off immediately.
A nurse in Salt Lake City came up with the idea and Kathy Klotz, executive director of Intermountain Therapy Animals, says they developed the program. Why not help kids improve their reading skills by having them read out loud to a dog? But these aren't just any dogs — they're registered therapy animals, paired with a trained handler. People thought it was silly … until they saw how all kids in the R.E.A.D. Program went up two to four grade levels by the end of one school year when the program was tested with these remarkable dogs.
They found how kids get embarrassed if they stutter while reading and worry people will make fun of them. They need a non-judgmental listener who they can feel comfortable reading to … which is what the therapy dogs provide. Besides fluency and comprehension, the R.E.A.D. Program helps kids work on a full-range of conversation skills, as the handler helps the dog "talk" to the child to check their understanding. This is important work since the National Education Association reports that having kids read aloud is one of the crucial components to becoming a good reader as it helps them practice recognizing letters and sounds.
Kathy says they took three years to develop a 200-page training manual to teach handlers how to help their dog support the kids' reading. The manual has standardized the experience and enabled the R.E.A.D. Program to take off throughout the United States and the world. They have registered over 5,000 dogs in 50 states and 15 countries to do this program. Recently they were invited to meet with a team in Sweden to implement the program, and previously, they've been to Japan and Spain.
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
R.E.A.D. Program 4050 S. 2700 East Salt Lake City, UT 84124 801-272-3439 www.therapyanimals.org
