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If anyone ever had doubts about the efficacy
of the Story Dogs program, or wondered if they should get involved
in the program, they should have watched the recent reading progress
of a nine-year-old girl working with my long-haired chihuahua,
Sophia. The little girl’s parent informed me the first week
we met, that the girl’s sight vocabulary consisted of about
a dozen words, and that was about right. Sophia and I had never
worked with a reading buddy at that low a level, especially for
her age, so we had our work cut out for us. The little girl told
us that if she had a dog, she would like to have a chihuahua most
of all. The bond between child and dog was almost instant.
The
first session was challenging as even the easiest books we selected,
ones that consisted of just single words on a page, the little
girl couldn't read. She was at the stage where she needed to work
on learning the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. We used
phonics cards during the next few sessions to work on her familiarity
with letter sounds, and gradually moved on to a Level 1 book from
the PM Plus Levelled Readers series. Movements of Sophia’s
head over the pages we were happy to interpret as interest in the
stories being read.
During our third session, our reading buddy
started noticing herself when she made mistakes and corrected them
on her own initiative, such as changing "was" to "is." In
week 4, she tackled a Level 2 book that interested her after reading
a Level 1 book and read it very well, even correcting herself
on the word "this" which she found tricky. When she used
the strategy of pointing to the words as she said them, she improved
her reading accuracy. By the end of our sixth session, she was
showing a marked improvement as repeated readings of the Level
1 books had gradually increased her sight-word vocabulary. When
she would get stuck on a sound, we referred back to the phonics
cards for a refresher. The treats for Sophia came more frequently
now; instead of getting a treat just at the end of a book, she
would be rewarded by our reading buddy at the beginning of each
book, and then every few pages for listening attentively. Sophia
was happy to oblige.
During the seventh session, our buddy read
a Level 2 book and a Level 3 book. Her attention span was great
and she self-corrected the word "comes" to "come," and
then when the word "comes" actually did appear later,
she read it correctly. Her sight-word vocabulary continued to expand.
We still made use of the phonics cards to help her from time to
time, such as with the "i" sound, when she confused "on" with "in." When
I mentioned that the next week would already be week 8, our last
session, she gave Sophia lots of hugs, saying she was going to
miss her. She asked if she could sign up again, as did her parent
upon returning to pick her up.
In session eight, our reading buddy
read three whole books, and they were all Level 3 books. Furthermore,
she read with expression, too! I was amazed by her progress. So
was her parent who reported on the meeting she’d had with
the girl’s teacher the previous morning. The teacher had
noticed the improvement in the girl’s reading skills at school.
Curious as to what grade the Level 3 Readers corresponded to, the
parent asked the teacher, and was thrilled to learn that the girl
had progressed from having such difficulty just sounding out
words, to reading sentences now at the grade one level.
In the
ninth and final session, our reading buddy picked a book about
dinosaurs off the shelf and read it to Sophia. She presented Sophia
with a package of dental bones, and me a trinket box with a poinsettia
on top; Sophia, wearing her Christmas-bell collar and tiny reindeer
antlers, gave our reading buddy a stuffed dog--which we also named
Sophia--that bears a striking resemblance to her, so that the little
girl could continue reading to “Sophia” once our sessions
ended. We finished by reading together a card that Sophia had ostensibly
written to our buddy--signed with a paw print--thanking her for
all the stories she had read, congratulating her on her reading
progress, and encouraging her to keep up the good work. A great
ending to a great child-and-dog partnership. |
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