Final Research Project

Effects of the Animal Assisted Therapy and reading in schools

Casandra Joiner

System University Ana G Mendez

Educ. 600

Educational research Methods

Dr. Maria Sevillanos

Miramar 02/25/2012

Ana G Mendez University south Florida campus- Miramar

Abstract

The following study is about the effects of the animal assisted therapy (AAAT) on the readings

skills. At the present, there are a significant percentage of students who are below of the normal

level of reading, to address this situation there are schools that are using the AAT as alternative

treatment for improving the reading skills. To know how this therapy works on the reading skills

of the students is the purpose of this research

Table of content

Introduction………………………………………………………………….4

Review Literature …………………………………………………………...5

Methodology ………………………………………………………………..9

References…………………………………………………………………..11

Appendix…………………………………………………………………....12

Introduction

Books and dogs, what relationship may exist between each other? This dichotomy does

not seem incongruous if included a third participant as a child with reading difficulties. Every

day it is common to see this scenery in schools and libraries: a dog accompanied by a volunteer o

teacher listening to a child read. Help students improve their reading level is essential for success

in school.

Nature of the problem

In 2009, “thirty-seven percent of fourth grades students are reading below the basic

level…” National assessment educational progress (2009) and the most recent report for 2011

found that there has not been a substantial change since 2009, NAEP( 2011) which means that

there was not any progress.

Educators and parents are trying to find alternatives to solve this situation, the daily

repetition is necessary to improve student reading “Those students who read more, and more

often, increase their fluency.” (Pang et al, 2003, 102, as cited in Kaymen, 2005, p24) However,

this practice may cause to student distress. Kaymen (2005) assumed the following “The

traditional forms of reading intervention strategies simply do not reach all struggling readers.

The requirement of reading aloud to adults can be intimidating and stressful to a reader who has

difficulty reading any way is challenged by the material.” (p.8).

One of the options that the schools are addressing this situation is the incorporation of

the animal assisted therapy (AAT) in the intervention reading programs. According to Delta

Society (2012): “animal assisted therapy is a goal-directed intervention in which an animal that

meets specific criteria is an integral part of the treatment process”.

Purpose of the project

There are several organizations that provide services to schools and libraries to improve

the reading in children. “Perhaps the most widely acclaimed AAT in an educational context is

the use of dogs as literacy mentors in reading enrichment programs”… (Fine, 2010, p. 472).

However, there are not enough systematic’ studies that back up the benefits of the animal

assisted in the improving of reading in children. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to

recognize the contributions of the Animal assisted therapy which improves the reading skills of

children.

Research question:

What is the effect of the animal assisted therapy treatment on the reading skills?

Paws for smiles is one of the organizations who operate in Broward county that proves

service of animal assisted therapy ( specially with dogs) to the schools and libraries, in order to

help the children to read better. This research is centered in the service proportionate by this

entity to a group of students. This organization was taken as sample to obtain the necessary

information for give response to the research question.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

The purpose of this literature review was to describe the research gathered on animal-

assisted therapy and reading. The review examined information on the use of AAT in schools,

and libraries, as well as its impact on improving children’s reading skills.

Background

Animals have always been part of our life, but until a few years ago their inclusion has

taken a different character. In 1960, Boris Levinson began to write professionally about his work

and his dog Jingles as co-therapist. He noticed that the presence of the dog in his consultations

served as ice-breaker. “The pet served as a transitional objet to aid in facilitating a relationship

between the patient and human therapist.”(Chandler, 2005, p.10). Afterwards, other

professionals began to document their work with animals, including Sam and Elizabeth O'Leary

Corson, “they were the first to integrate animals in the hospital environment and to collect

research data. (Chandler, 2005 , p.10).

Actually, the use of animal-assisted therapy in different areas has been reported in several

books and journals. Professor Ahmedzai (2001), of Palliative Medicine at Sheffield University

Medical School, indicated:

There are already data from several small studies showing how human-animal interaction

favorably impacts on levels of blood lipids, glucose and thrombotic factors as well as

influencing the body’s own production of substances which boost the immune system,

relieve pain and generate a sense of well-being.

The AAT had reported physical and emotional changes in persons. Weston (2010) wrote

an article for a Counselor Journal which stated: “I discovered that in the US and Canada therapy

animals were widely used to assist adults and children with emotional and psychological

disorders including depression, recovery from trauma, anxiety and neuroses.” (p.13).

The benefits from ATT

According to Watt (2009) the ATT prove “Improving fine motor skills, education,

improving physical, mental and emotional status, reducing anxiety or loneliness and increasing

motivation. Furthermore, “the use of animals in therapy sessions has been shown to increase

communication, teach responsibility and respect”. ( Grado, 2011, p.12).

AAT and reading programs

To improve reading the daily practice are necessary, however this activity may cause

stress to the students because of nervousness in reading aloud in front of the teacher or peers.

Medical researcher James Lynch found that children alone in a quiet room had an instant spike in

blood pressure when they began to read aloud. Their blood pressure quickly lowered when a dog

entered and wandered about the room (Black, 2009, p36).

The reading aloud process can be directly or indirectly affected by the stress, anxiety, and

self-esteem of the students. If practice is not accompanied by an entertaining book, the reading

aloud strategy could be boring for the students. In 1983, Friedmann, Katcher, Thomas, Lynch, &

Messent detected lower blood pressures, a physiological measure of stress, in children reading

aloud with a dog present as compared to reading without the dog present. This discovery

illustrated an important benefit of children reading to dogs.

Also, Hartman (2005) states “Therapy dog programs provide a safe and nurturing

environment for beginning and struggling readers, children often feel more comfortable reading

to a furry four legged friend so to parent or teacher because dogs are perceived as being a non-

critical audience” (p.3 ). Considering this, the practice of reading aloud accompanied the AAT

could be a good alternative to create the favorable conditions.

According to Jalongo (2005), “the presence of a calm and well trained dog offers a

unique form of social support and invites peer interaction… also states that medical evidence

indicates that therapy dogs can reduce stress ….When children were asked to read aloud, “the

presence of a therapy dog reduces children’s blood pressure and other observable signs of

anxiety” (p.6.) The above references have in common that AAT reduces anxiety, stress and

blood pressure in children creating favorable conditions for the practice of reading.

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs program (R.E.A.D) was formed in 1999 at the

Intermountain Therapy Animal (under tutelage of Delta Society) address in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This program encourages children to lower their inhibitions about their limitations concerning

their reading skills while reading to a dog, which helps to improve their reading skills. “READ

alone currently sponsors more than 1300 therapy dogs and handlers in school and libraries”

(Black, 2009, p.36). R.E.A.D has served as an example for the creation of other similar programs

throughout the nation. Paw for smiles, read to your breed, canine’s schools, and share a book are

examples of the organizations that help to improve the reading through certified dogs.

Limitation

The research’s methodology will take into consideration the privacy of the partakers,

their right to not participate or respond to any question, and fundamentally the consent of the

parents to allow their children to be a part of this investigation.

Chapter 3: Methodology

Reading is an essential cognitive process where improving ones reading skills is

important for academic success. Rather than executing only traditional treatments, implementing

alternative ones is a helpful contribution to the field of education.

Description of methodology

This is a correlational study, because two variables were used; animal therapy and

reading skills. The design of this research will have two approaches: quantitative and qualitative,

because the information will be obtained through interviews and surveys. The survey will be

designed following the format Likert-type scale, while the total outcome of the surveys will

correspond to the sample.

Sample

The participants for this research will be elementary students with reading problems. The

sample will contain 20 children voluntarily attending animal assisted therapy in an after school

program, provided by the organization Paws for Smiles in Broward County.

Data collect

To collect the information, the following tools will be used: observation, interviews, and

surveys. The observation will focus on the dynamic impact animal therapy has on the children.

The interviews will be held for teachers and therapists to obtain feedback on whether or not they

see progression in the children’s reading abilities. Finally, two types of surveys will be

administered. The first survey is targeted towards the teachers & therapists. It is designed to

measure reading skills in three features: fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. The second

survey is for the students which will be based on their liking of reading to the dogs and how they

feel after the therapy is completed.

Limitation

The research’s methodology will take into consideration the privacy of the partakers,

their right to not participate or respond to any question, and fundamentally the consent of the

parents to allow their children to be a part of this investigation.

References

Black, S. (2009). Sit .stay and read. American school board journal, 196, 31-36.

Booten, A. (2011), "Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Behavior and Reading in the

Classroom" Theses and Dissertations. Retrieved from: http://mds.marshall.edu

Carver, R. (2000). The cause of high and low reading achievement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence.

Chandler, C (2005). Animal assisted therapy in counseling .New York, NY: Routledge.

Delta Society. (2012). Introduction to animal assisted activities and therapy. Retrieved from

www.deltasociety.org

Fine, A. (2000). Animal assisted therapy: theorist foundation and guidelines for practice. San

Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Friesen, L. (2009). Exploring animal assisted programs with children in school and therapeutic

contexts. Early childhood Educ, 4, 261-269. DOI: 10.1007/s10643-009-0349-5

Grado, E (2011). Dr. Fluffy: An in-depth look at animal assisted therapy. Exceptional parent,

41(2), 12-16.

Hartman, A. (2010). Good dog. Sit. Listen, American Libraries, 41, 13.

Jalogo, M. (2005). “What are all these dogs doing at school”? Childhood education, 81, 152-158.

Kaymen, M. (2005). Exploring animal assisted therapy as a reading intervention strategy.

Retrieved http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICservelet?accno=ED490729

Nation Assessment of education progress (NAEP), (2011). The Nation Report Card, reading.,

Retrieved from http://www.nces.ed.gov

Pang, E., Muaka, A., & Kamil, M. (2003) Teaching reading: educational practice series. Geneva,

Switzerland: Retrieved from www.ibe.unesco.org

Weston, F. ( 2010 ). Using animal assisted therapy with children. British journal of school

nursing, 5,p 344.

Watts, K. (2009). Helping children with disabilies through animal-assisted therapy. Exceptional

parent 39, ( 95), p 34-35.

Brochure:

Animoto

Link: http://animoto.com/play/oQjiNhKRmuCG6TbN320tBw

Jing:

Link: http://www.screencast.com/users/casandrijo/folders/Default/media/e4280628-5a0e-4fe2-

b933-fa74d1946c70

Critical Journal

By: Ivan Castellanos

Casandra Joiner

Idania Perez

An essay submitted to the

Ana G. Mendez University System

For Research

EDU 600

Ana G. Mendez University System-South Florida Campus 2012

Introduction

The purpose of this article study is discuss and critique review an project that investigate

the effect of two approach for providing reading comprehension strategies instructions to seventh

and eighth grade ESL students with LD on comprehension of English language text. This article

was written by Janette Kattmann Klingner and Sharon Vaughan. This study was published on

The Elementary School Journal vol.96, No3, 1966 by The University of Chicago.

The aspects to be described and analyzed here are: the research design, the sampling, the

measure, the data analysis procedure, findings and results

The journal’s title, “Reciprocal Teaching of Reading Comprehension Strategies for Students

with Learning Disabilities, Who Use English as a Second Language is appropriate and clear. The

abstract is presented in a specific and correct form about the efficacy of the research, including

the topic problem, sample, methodology, finding and recommendation.

The goal of the research study was to measure a) reciprocal teaching in combination with

cross-age tutoring and b) reciprocal teaching in combination with cooperative grouping.

Descriptive measures were administrated individually prior to the intervention also one

additional quantitative measures. The Gates –MacGinitie and the strategy interview were

administrated as pre- and posttests.

The findings reveled in that initial reading ability, and oral language proficiency seemed

related to gains in comprehension, that a greater range of students benefited from the strategies.

This approach was based on at least a decade of development in other's settings where

problems have been addressed. In the study is no information about students or parents’ consent.

The participants were selected from an original amount of 42 possible subjects to then 26

students and were randomly placed into two groups of seventh and eighth graders with learning

disabilities.

Research Design

The research design of this study is guided by a theory that researcher has that students if

shown in reciprocal teaching, cooperative learning and cross- age tutoring can be guided through

supervision to helping each other out in different ways possible with strategies they are shown to

improve their reading comprehension. They are using previous studies that have been used but in

this case are adding a different variable, which is that the subjects have learning disabilities and

use English as a second language.

The authors begin by choosing their samples, which of course they must select, their

candidates which at the end of their meticulous selection remain with 26, which makes up their

case study. The author goes overboard in their in depth and over analytical explanations of the

different types of methods of learning that will be used in the study. At times less is more and

would have been a great tactic to have followed. I understand that it is crucial for your audience

to understand what you are trying to do and understand the terminology of everything but in this

case it was just too much.

One part of the journal that was not of any type of relevancy was why the students who

have learning disabilities and on top of that use English as a second language subjected to take

the amount of test they had to take to tell them that that all but two were not making progress.

They could have administered a uniquely designed test to measure the improvements of the

students in the study instead of submitting them to an over standardized test that those students

are not even ready for with all the language barriers they may have or learning disabilities.

Another bothersome and poor execution of the journal article was the vast amount of referencing

there is. Every other line is full of it. At times your feel it is necessary to take a break from all the

line jumping to give your sight a break because there are just too many. You feel like you forget

most of the material previously read because you are trying to get to the next real sentence to get

a better understanding of what the previous material read. We believe the study could have been

better formatted to get the attention of the reader and keep them reader while many people just

want to put the journal article down.

Conclusion

The researcher took a Reciprocal teaching as variable and diversified it in two strategies,

with the intention of obtaining more effective results. Although there were not significant

differences in the levels of comprehension between strategies, the research emphasizes that the

presence of the tutor was significant. This investigation used different tests, preceding research,

statistic; graphs to get scientific results, making this research a serious investigation. Reciprocal

teaching is an appropriate strategic tool for improving the comprehension levels in the students.

Finally, we can point out that this research is very important and beneficial in the field of

education, taking in consideration a high percentage of students with reading problems. Future

research can take it as reference and apply this in different contexts.

References

Sierra Center Writing. (2002, February). Guidelines for Writing a Literary Critical Analysis.

Retrieved February 10, 2012, from http://lrc.sierra.cc.ca.us/writingcenter/litcrit.htm

The OW at Perdue University. (1995-2011). What Makes a Good Literature Paper. Retrieved

February 8, 2012, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/

Reflexive Journals

Week 1

To be honest with you, our first class caused me anxiety because of the amount of information

and little time to process, besides personal limitations (English). But I remain optimistic and

motivated. I think it's a good opportunity to refresh and learn knowledge’s necessary for our

professional development. I think we're a good team and will take advantage this experience.

Week 2

Our second class it was very interesting, because each steps of the research process represents a

new challenge, not only our knowledge are necessary in this course as well our capacity of

analysis. it's important to know What happened? What happens? And what will happen? About

our topic for development a good research. It's no easy but no bad.

Week 3

The research process is an arduous work that requires blood, sweat and tears, especially when

this process is accompanied by the factor time. But, every sacrifice has its reward. Educ 600 is an

opportunity to discuss, learn, analyze and show our knowledge. Although, it’s cost blood, sweat

and tears.

Week 4

In four classes I have learned not only knowledge about research, but also about my daily life, I

remember at the first class the teacher said we should organize our time. Effectively is the key !!

I think if we did not have the ghost of the clock behind us, we will take more advantage of this

course, this class should be have an introductory class due to its importance