VIDEO: Reading To Dogs

Thanks to the funding provided by “Friends of Sayville Education Foundation, Inc.,” a pet therapy reading program launched this year at has been a tremendous success.    

During the sessions, select students who have enrolled in the program, read in groups of two with Boo, a trained and certified Bideawee therapy dog who is accompanied by her trained and certified owner, Wendy Barrick, a speech-language pathologist at Sunrise Drive.

Boo has increased her students’ love for reading by freeing them from their own inhibitions about their reading abilities. Barrick serves as listener and coach who keeps the “reading partners” on track during their lessons. There is also time, before and after the reading sessions, to pet Boo and give her some treats.

Patch stopped by a reading session earlier this week to see what the new program is all about. Watch the video report above.

Information in this article (and the great idea for a video report) provided by Linda Mittiga

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