Lacey the therapy dog visits a school in Valley View, Pennsylvania to help 4 boys feel more confident about reading.
Sally Bair and her English cocker spaniel, Lacey, have been visiting students at Hegins-Hubley Elementary School for the past five weeks. Lacey is a certified therapy dog and she visits with four boys who take turns reading books to her.
Lacey and her owner Sally visit the school every Monday morning and work with the boys to help them feel more confident about reading. The boys each take turns reading a book out loud to Lacey and the group. First they practice reading the book and then each are asked to read it out loud.
"We conducted reading probes before Lacey began coming to the classroom and then again after her fourth visit and the results were impressive," said teacher Ashley Miller. "Fluency improved and also the words per minute that each student read correctly. Each students test scores improved by at least 10 more words."
The boys who read with Lacey have asked if she could stay at school with them all the time. But Lacey has other jobs like visiting the local nursing home so she continues to visit the school once a week to read with the boys.
http://republicanherald.com/news/lacey-the-dog-encourages-students-to-read-at-hegins-hubley-1.1124529