狗可以帮助孩子提升阅读技能？
Can children improve their reading skills by reading to dogs? Researchers at the University of California, Davis, reported that the answer is yes. Just ask Taivion Scott. He began learning to read last year. He has difficulty with new words, but says it helps when a dog is sitting next to him.
Dog Izzy has been coming to the school for a year with Denise Velasquez, a volunteer with PAL. PAL stands for People Animals Love, a group in Washington that brings dogs into schools and libraries.
Denise Velasquez helped Taivion with his reading. She said, “I pulled Izzy in a little bit, too, so he could feel a little bit closer to her, and then we started to take it one word at a time because a whole book can be overwhelming, but a single word is something you can deal with.”
Eric Reithel from the PAL program says he can understand the children because he had problems with reading when he was young. He said, “They feel more confident when reading to a dog; a dog isn’t going to tell them that’s the wrong word.”
The Anacostia neighborhood is the poorest area in Washington, DC. 75% of the students here are raised by a single parent, usually a mother. Reading to dogs helps the children living here with their reading. For example, Melvin Hansberry, one of the children here, says the dogs help him learn big words. He said, “It’s like you’re reading to your little sister or your brother.”