Three Things to Know
The growing popularity of animal-assisted education and dog-assisted reading programs in schools prompted researchers to explore their adaptability to home environments through a pilot study during the pandemic.
Among the eight participating students, five demonstrated improvement of at least one reading level, while one regressed, suggesting potential for home-based dog-assisted reading programs.
However, parents reported challenges in maintaining their children’s engagement, and feedback on enjoyment and ease of weekly participation was mixed. Notably, post-study surveys indicated increased parental stress, suggesting the program’s effectiveness in the home setting was less successful than anticipated.
For Dog Welfare Practitioners
Research supports the value of animal-assisted education in fostering empathy and relationship skills, with dog-assisted reading programs providing a particularly supportive environment. However, this study reveals challenges in home implementation, including engagement issues and increased parental stress.
This underscores an opportunity for animal shelters, with their neutral setting and existing dog-assisted reading programs, to play a crucial role. Expanding and actively promoting these shelter-based youth programs, emphasizing their benefits, is a strategic move.
The Full Picture
As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted traditional in-class learning, literacy development stalled, especially among younger and lower-income students. While formal at-home literacy activities have been proposed to close these gaps, many parents lack the time, skills, or confidence to effectively support their children’s reading. Additionally, the shift increased parental stress and reliance on digital devices for literacy.
On the other hand, animal-assisted interventions, especially those involving dogs, have become more common in classrooms, showing benefits to children’s mental and physical health, cognitive performance, and literacy. In response, this pilot project and the accompanying study, titled “Reading to Dogs at Home: A Pilot Study”, explored whether a school-based dog-assisted reading program could be successfully adapted for home use. The study aimed to examine its potential to improve children’s reading and reduce parental stress — marking the first known attempt to implement and assess such a support in a home environment.
Study Methods
This study was conducted in Alberta, Canada, in the summer of 2021. It involved 8 parent-child-dog triads, recruited via social media. Eligibility criteria included internet access, a tablet, and a dog aged 2+ years. Data were collected via surveys before and after the 8-week study. Measures included demographic information, parental stress (using the PSS-10), and parent-assessed reading proficiency. These data helped assign children to appropriate reading levels in Raz-Kids®, an online reading platform.
Each week, children selected and listened to a book on Raz-Kids, then read it aloud to their family dog, with minimal parental intervention. Sessions were designed to be engaging and comforting, allowing physical interaction with the dog. Children read each book multiple times and completed an online comprehension quiz afterward. At the end of each session, children and parents provided positive reinforcement, with no material rewards. The entire weekly session was estimated to take about 20 minutes. After 8 weeks, parents completed follow-up surveys to assess changes in stress and reading engagement.
Study Results
The 8 participating children (6 girls, 2 boys, average age 7.2 years) were all entering Grade 3 and lived in English-speaking households. All participating parents were mothers. Most family dogs were mixed breeds, averaging 6.2 years of age, and had been with the family for over two years. Parents reported an average of 1.6 pets per household.
Regarding the 2020–21 school year, most children attended in-person school, though some had periods of online learning due to COVID-19 exposure. Parents were generally unhappy with online learning and unsure if their children had fallen behind academically.
Reading Outcomes
Children logged into the Raz-Kids platform an average of 13 times, spending nearly 4 hours reading across 8 weeks. On average, they listened to 9 books and read 6.6 aloud. Five of eight children improved at least one reading level, while two stayed the same and one declined. The reading level gains were modest (average increase of 0.875 levels).
Children demonstrated strong reading comprehension, scoring highest in inference (90% accuracy) and maintaining solid performance across categories like sequencing (80.5%), vocabulary (83.5%), and main ideas (74%).
Parent Surveys & Stress
Before the study, parents generally viewed their children as somewhat confident and happy readers and felt capable of supporting their child’s learning. They also reported strong emotional bonds between their children and their family dogs. All parents read regularly with their children, averaging 2.3 books per day, and visited the library frequently.
After the study, parents found it somewhat difficult to keep their children engaged in the dog-assisted reading program, and responses about enjoyment and ease of weekly participation were mixed. However, parents found the Raz-Kids platform itself easy to use. As participants generally reported high levels of home reading even before the study, this suggests that they may not have been the target group most in need of support.
Importantly, parental stress increased significantly over the 8-week study, rising from an average score of 28.6 to 56.4 on the Perceived Stress Scale. Increased stress levels could potentially be attributed to external factors, such as the study’s timing. Conducted during summer 2021, just before the school year began and amid pandemic uncertainty, parents may have been overwhelmed by the added burden.
Conclusion
This pilot study explored the feasibility of delivering dog-assisted reading supports at home. Findings showed that adapting AAI for home use did not significantly improve children’s reading levels. Moreover, rather than easing parents’ burden, the program may have added stress due to its detailed structure and the demands placed on parents — many of whom felt unsure about how to apply the support correctly. While the findings suggest that at-home dog-assisted reading programs are possible, their implementation must be carefully designed.
Miscellaneous
Data From Study:
–
Year of Publication:
2023
External Link:
Syrnyk C, McArthur A, Zwack A, Makowsky M. Reading to Dogs at Home: A Pilot Study. Early Child Educ J. Published online March 29, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01482-y