Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.®) at work in East Helena
by Derek Brouwer
Helena Independent Record
October 24, 2013
This article, by Helena Independent Record reporter Derek Brouwer, was published October 24, 2013. Photos by Helena Independent Record photographer Eliza Wiley.
It sounded almost like a prayer.
Hadley Scoles, a second-grader at East Helena’s Radley Elementary, sat on a dog bed in a quiet hallway. She read aloud in a soft, steady voice, her finger following each line on the page.
“Henry and Mudge took long walks in the woods,” she read. Henry is a young boy, and Mudge his canine friend. Hadley read about all the ways Henry and Mudge are different. “But one thing about them was the same,” she continued, “In the fall, they liked being together.”
There’s no clapping after Hadley turns the final page. Instead, with a quick smile she hands a treat to her listener, an Australian shepherd named Alice, and walks quietly back to class.
Hadley was one of a handful of students to read with a therapy dog Wednesday morning — a weekly occurrence at Radley, according to librarian Chris Dexter.
Helena Book Hounds is an affiliate of the nation-wide program called Reading Education Assistance Dogs® (R.E.A.D®), and the premise is simple. Young children read out loud to a registered therapy dog and its handler. For many students, it provides a calm setting in which to practice their reading and an audience that won’t judge missteps.
“They read more fluently,” Dexter said, “they don’t worry about making mistakes. They forget people are around.”
Dexter said therapy dogs have been coming to Radley for almost seven years. She coordinates between teachers and the volunteer dog handlers, who are registered with R.E.A.D.®, to give as many students as possible a chance to read with the dogs.
Dexter said she’s seen it help transform some students’ attitude toward reading. They’re able to relax around the dog, she said, and “the agitation and nervousness would go away.”
The students read in the school basement, next to the music room. Despite a line of students passing by and then the clanging sound of music class, the readers didn’t raise their eyes from the books.
Students who are struggling or who respond particularly well to the dogs are often scheduled more face time, Dexter said.
“Some of those kids have some tough things going on in their lives, and they love that affection.”
“It gets them a few minutes of very personal attention in a very safe place,” Alice’s handler, Cathy Kendall, said. On Wednesday, Kendall helped the students sound out new words and asked questions as they read.
Each student responds to the animals a little differently. CJ Puotinen, handler for a 10-year old Labrador retriever named Chloe, said she can generally tell which children are comfortable with dogs or who have one at home.
Across the hall, third-grader Dempsey Ireland sped through several books. His hand never left the fur of Chloe. “I like it because I have dogs, and it’s kind of fun to read to other dogs,” Dempsey said. “Reading is my favorite subject.”
The dogs, too, may have a knack for their readers. Dexter recalled one dog who appeared to give special attention to a student with cerebral palsy. After the student had read to the dog, it approached the student knowingly during a later visit.
“They seem to know which kids need a little more,” she said. “I just think there’s something about them that’s amazing to see.”
Radley isn’t the only stop on the dogs’ service circuit. They also regularly read with a class of third- graders at Bryant School in Helena and make frequent therapy visits to St. Peter’s and Shodair hospitals.
The therapy dogs received special recognition on Sunday for their work with a small blessing ceremony at the Masonic Home. There, the dogs and their handlers heard readings from a different sort of book.
Pet blessings take place in churches around the country during October, often in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. Assisi was a 12th century Italian friar remembered for his affinity toward animals, for which he is considered the patron saint in Catholicism.
The small ceremony in the chapel of the assisted living home, though, had a more specific purpose.
“It’s a way to recognize (the dogs’) work, to acknowledge the efforts that their handlers make,” Puotinen said. Her dogs Chloe, the Labrador Retriever, and Seamus, a Cairn Terrier, took part in the blessing.
Pastors Cathy Barker and Dick Weaver led the group in song and readings before individually thanking the animals.
One dog, Jack, chimed in during the refrain of a song called “All God’s Critters Have A Place In The Choir.” Vocalizing isn’t necessarily ideal behavior in therapy dogs, but Jack is new at it, handler Diana Longdon said, and his singing brought out a chuckle in a few of the home’s residents who had joined for the celebration.
“The dogs are just being dogs,” Weaver laughed, suggesting that the ceremony offered a way to thank their handlers. “To me it feels a little bit reciprocal,” Barker said, more seriously, “because my sense is that the dogs bless us all the time.”