The Impacts of a Reading-to-Dog Programme on Attending and Reading of Nine Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Reading to a dog brings kids to class and makes them excited about books, but you still need direct skill instruction to raise reading scores.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Nine children with autism joined a reading-to-dog program at school. Kids took turns reading aloud to a calm, trained dog twice a week. The team tracked how often each child showed up and how much parents said they read at home. They also gave standard reading and thinking tests before and after the program.
What they found
More kids came to class on dog days. Parents said their children asked to read more at night. Yet the reading test scores stayed flat. The dog helped with showing up and wanting to read, not with actual skill growth.
How this fits with other research
Dimolareva et al. (2021) looked at sixteen animal studies and found tiny gains in social and talking skills. Their pooled result matches the small boost in motivation seen here.
Spaniol et al. (2021) ran attention training in the same age group and got real jumps in reading scores. Their computer drills worked where the dog did not, showing motivation alone may not be enough.
Lemons et al. (2015) warned that reading lessons rarely fix behavior. The dog program fits that warning: it lifted attendance and interest, yet left skill scores unchanged.
Why it matters
Use the dog as a hook, not the whole lesson. Schedule short, fun reading bursts with a therapy dog to get kids through the door and keep books in their hands. Pair those visits with direct skill teaching like CPAT or structured phonics. That combo gives you both happy faces and rising scores.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this research was to compare reading motivation and attitude, as well as reading and cognitive skills, of school-age children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who attended a 10 session reading programme with and without the presence of a dog. Children who read to a dog had 100% attendance at sessions over the course of the programme versus 75% (range 25–100%) of children attending reading sessions without a dog. In addition, after the programme, they were significantly more motivated and willing to read at home, as perceived by their parents. However, there were no significant differences in scores on reading and cognitive tests either within each group or between groups. Based on these results, we can conclude that reading to a dog can have positive effects on an ASD child’s motivation and attitude toward reading. More research is needed to better understand if it can also have positive effects on children with ASD’s overall reading and cognitive abilities. Poor knowledge is available on the effectiveness of reading to dogs in educational settings, particularly in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In this study, we test the hypothesis that reading to a dog improves propensity towards books and motivation to read after the end of the programme, as well as reading and cognitive skills in children with ASD. The study is a prospective, randomized controlled trial, consisting of testing and re-testing after a 10 sessions reading programme with and without the presence of a dog. Nine Children with ASD (6–11 years old) were randomly assigned to a control (CG, reading without a dog, n. 4) or experimental group (EG, reading to a dog, n. 5). Children’s attendance at reading sessions was recorded at each session. Parents’ perceptions were evaluated at the end of the programme to detect changes in children’s attitudes and motivation toward reading. Psychologist-administered validated reading (Cornoldi’s MT2 reading test; test of reading comprehension, TORC; metaphonological competence test, MCF) and cognitive tests (Wechsler intelligence scale for children Wisc IV, Vineland) to all children, at baseline and at the end of the reading programme. Compared with CG children, children in the EG group participated more frequently in the reading sessions, and they were reported to be more motivated readers at home after the programme. However, there were no differences on reading and cognitive tests’ scores either within each group of children or between groups. Further studies are warranted in order to understand whether and how incorporating dogs into a reading programme is beneficial to Children with ASD at the socio-emotional and cognitive level.
Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI, 2019 · doi:10.3390/ani9080491