Скачать или смотреть Therapy dog visits encourage literacy at elementary school

At Thousand Oaks Elementary, you don’t have to look far to find little readers.

Every week, kids like six-year-old Belle Garcia are reading to a special guest.

“Every Thursday when I come in here, I feel like she is going to high-five me and I’m going to make her learn a lot,” Belle said.

Three certified therapy dogs come to the school every week.

Tara Harris is the Thousand Oaks Elementary Instructional Intervention teacher.

“They are here to foster a love of literacy, build relationships with our students and also add extra supports for our students,” Harris said.

The program began last year as a way to encourage children to read.

“Students that may not always speak out the loudest or volunteer to read or be a part of things, some of our more hesitant kiddos,” Harris added.

This year, the program added dogs like Hazel, who reigned as El Rey Fido XVII during last year’s Fiesta, to help reduce stress for military children experiencing deployment.

“My mom was in the military and my dad is in the military,” first-grader Emma Hudlow said.

Jennifer Brooks is the Thousand Oaks Counselor.

“We have a large population of military families and not all the kids realized that there were other students on campus who were also in the military. We wanted to form a community of those kiddos that they had people that they can make friendships with and know that they were not alone,” Brooks said.

She said they also wanted to prepare students who hadn’t been through the deployment quite yet.

“A lot of times kiddos make up scary stories in their head about what’s going to happen to their parents. They don’t know when they are going to see their parents again or they don’t know how to cope. It was really a way of building a community of kiddos that support each other and help build those coping skills,” Brooks added.

Ten-year-old Urijah Tandy said he feels happy when he’s around Hazel and other kids who are going through the same thing as him.

“The reason I like to meet with Hazel is because whenever I think of how I miss my dad when he is gone- because he is right now- I just think of happy stuff because I’m with Hazel and I don’t think about sad stuff. I feel different with I’m with her; I feel happier and like them. They all go through this so I don’t have to feel like I’m the only one in the world going through this,” Urijah said.

Hazel also helped seven-year-old Rebecca Hachspacher adjust after moving to the United States from Brazil.

“Hazel helps me make friends because I was from another country and I came here,” Rebecca said.

Harris said both the children and teachers really enjoy the company of the therapy dogs when they come to school.

“The kids are asking daily, when do we get to see Lily; when do we get to see Hazel?”

Sarah Morgan brings her dog Hazel in to see the kids on Thursdays through the Therapy Animals of San Antonio Organization.

Gracie comes Tuesdays with her owner Sandra through the Paws for Service Organization.

Lily and Judith come on Thursdays to read with the kids through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs Organization.

"Thousand Oaks is innovative, we have a lot of leaders as you can see. That’s our whole purpose here at Thousand Oaks and making school the best part of their day and making it their home away from home,” Harris added.

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Ashley Speller
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