Therapy Dogs Help Students Build Reading Skills

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Some Mansfield ISD students who need a little extra help with reading are visited by some four-legged friends every week to provide additional support.

Glenn Harmon Elementary School launched its Rover Reader program this school year. It’s designed to encourage struggling readers to build confidence in reading aloud and building reading fluency.

Trenell Scott, assistant principal at Harmon Elementary School, started the initiative at her campus because she has seen the program work in other schools to address a student’s academic and emotional needs.

Each child reads aloud to a dog for approximately 15 minutes.

“The benefits for the children is to build self-confidence,” said Scott. “Because the trainers are retired teachers and retired school counselors, there’s a mentoring component to it as well.”

Rover Reader gives students the ability to read aloud in an unstressful setting. The children in the program said the canines also help brighten up their day.

“I love this program because it helped me, and it helped me be special,” said third-grader Kemarreon Carter. “It makes me feel happy and better from reading to the dog.”

The therapy dogs, provided by a local chapter of Pet Partners, visit the school every Wednesday morning. Staff members have received a lot of positive feedback from participants and their parents.

“Our first time that we had the dogs come, the kids came to school with bags of treats because they were excited to see their dogs,” Scott continued.

Program organizers said they enjoy seeing the students bond with the animals while achieving their literacy goals. They hope the program will be a staple at the school for years to come.