Furry friends provide reading therapy for children in need of helping paw
Man’s best friend? How about a book’s greatest advocate? The Oshkosh Public Library has found a furry way to connect children with reading companions. The Read to a Dog event happens every Monday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm and uses therapy dogs in training to help young readers build self confidence. This program specializes in helping kids with speaking and reading skills, which will help later in life. These dogs end up boosting confidence with reading out loud, which can later help with presentation skills.
This event has been going on for many years and will continue for kids who need extra help and practice.
“I’ve been here nine years, and it was going on before I got here,” Marie Boleman, head of children services at the library, said.
Librarians and parents alike adore the event for its moral and educational values.
“It’s great that we continue to get kids who are interested in coming and practicing their reading skills with a furry assistant,” Boleman said.
Libraries all over the world have started doing a Read to a Dog event in order to boost children’s confidence in a comfortable environment. Parents and teachers alike see the benefits this event holds. The judgment free space helps young learners feel safe, but still listened to.
The trained professionals create a place where no one will bother the children, with the draw of dogs who will listen all day to kids reading with no judgment.
“I think most libraries started it because there has been research that shows that reading with an animal, a calm animal like our reading dogs, helps the child to feel a little less nervous while practicing their reading skills,” Boleman said.
This event mostly specializes with the ages 5-12, and libraries design the event for this age group because they often struggle more with reading abilities. However, the dogs aren’t just reading buddies; they are learning to be certified therapy dogs that help kids and adults with any stress that might pop up.
“We’ve got a variety of different dogs that come in, different types of dogs, sizes, colors,” Boleman said.
The selection of reading companions is one of the children's favorite parts about the program. This wouldn’t be possible without help from humans and dogs alike.
“We’ve got volunteers and we have a coordinator; when people come to the read to a dog program they get a dog that is training to become a therapy dog,” Boleman said.
These dogs come from a therapy corporation and from volunteers and thus are not adoptable, already living in happy homes. After training for years to become therapy dogs and helping people with stress and bad news, they now can assist children with reading. This event has a double purpose, as both dogs and children learn from each other. Kids can often be very energetic and easily distract therapy dogs. The read to a dog event gives these animals in training a chance to practice their skills while unknowingly providing the perfect classroom for children to learn.
It makes the children feel important and listened to, while unjudged for any mistakes being made.
“It’s really relaxing for them and they don’t feel judged,” Boleman said.
Not only do parents love seeing the dogs and kids, the librarians love seeing the kids go around and find the perfect dog to read and snuggle with. Some aren’t aware this program is going on within the Oshkosh Public Library. Some ways the librarians came up with to keep this event live and running is by posting more about it online and having others go out to families.
“I think the more the word gets out the more people will be excited about it, and we can grow our participation and have a bigger impact with the program,” Boleman said.
Volunteers and parents alike would hate to see this helpful event start to run down.
“The kids have their favorite [dogs] and so they come back, and it’s like meeting with their friend again, and they get really excited to pick a book off of our cart of offerings,” she said.
This excitement about reading is part of why the event is so successful. Not only do children get to read a good book, but they get to be with a furry friend.
While the library is trying more strategies to get this program publicized, the way the community can help raise awareness to this event is by spreading the word anywhere that it will get attention and spark the interest of others.
“You take that spark and you’re doing something with it and spreading the word,” Boleman said.
by Kayden Brandt
Published November 27 2023
Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue II