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Success Story: Children's Reading Scores "Off The Charts"
... And Saving Lives Of Scared Dogs At Animal Shelters
 

 
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Funding Need To Provide Food To Overcrowded Shelters With Many Hungry Animals, Medicines To Save Sick Animals, Books For Children Reading To Animals At Shelters, And Resources To Support And Expand These Programs
 

Several years ago, animal shelters began inviting children to read books to the animals. These programs were instantly successful. The children loved reading to the animals. Teachers loved the amazing gains in the children’s reading levels. This is especially important since the United States Department of Education’s latest National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trend report found that student reading scores across the nation have now dropped to their lowest level since 1971.

 

Fortunately, the children that read at least 20 minutes each night have experienced outstanding reading gains. That’s why we created the system to allow children to read to scared dogs at animal shelters by phone.

 

What was highly unexpected was how much the animals benefited by listening to the children reading books.

 

An animal shelter is a very scary place for a dog. Everyone, and everything, they have ever known is now gone. They are locked in a cage. They can’t play and run. They don’t know what will happen next, or if they can ever trust anyone again. Most are afraid and stressed. This can lead to cowering in a corner, jumping, barking, and lunging when people come to look for a dog to adopt. Since most people will not adopt a dog that displays these behaviors, high stress levels can be deadly.

 

Fortunately, animal researchers have found when shelter dogs listen to recordings of children reading books, they have much lower stress levels. They were only stressed 26.39% of the time, while the average dog at a shelter was stressed 75.92% of the time. What was most exciting was that the dogs loved listening to recordings of children reading books. The dogs calmed down, so they improved their chances for adoption.

 

Teachers, principals, parents, and animal shelter managers were all looking for options to expand this successful program. Since many children across the nation do not have at-home Internet access and/or computers, schools needed a program that could help ALL children. So we created a phone based solution. Unlike Internet service, the government considers telephone service a utility. Therefore, low-cost or free phone service is available in every community through government programs.

 

The children simply pick up a phone and call the educational phone number provide by their teacher. Everything is super easy. Even kindergarten students are using the system without any help. The system has many educational programs and resources, but the "Read To A Dog" has been the most popular. The system asks the student to say the name of their book, then to say the author, and then asks the student to read the book.

 

All students are completely anonymous for student privacy. The educational phone system only asks the children to read their book. The system does not ask for student identifiable information, such as names.

 

The project was highly successful. The children loved the fact that they could easily record books to help animals, anytime and anywhere. Many young children start their reading sessions by saying, “Hello Doggie … I’m going to read you a book to help you stay calm”. Many also end their reading sessions with, “Good night Doggie … stay calm … I’m going to call you again tomorrow!!!”.

 

The results have been amazing. We have students that are reading at home, every day, even on weekends, holidays, and school breaks. Overall reading minutes have tripled and their reading growth scores are not only far above the national averages … they are “off the charts”. We are even seeing children that were ranked the lowest in the nation (bottom 25%) have now reached the top reading levels (top 25%) nationwide, simply by reading to the scared dogs by phone every day.

 

The project was highly successful. The children loved the fact that they could easily record books to help animals, anytime and anywhere. The children are now reading many more books than ever, so their reading levels are now improving very quickly.

 

We also analyzed the long-term benefits the children will receive because of their outstanding reading growth.

 

These children are on track to become happy, healthy, millionaires. New research has found that children that can improve their reading level by one standard deviation should earn at least an extra {2}lt;/span>1 to {2}lt;/span>7 million during their careers because they have the academic skills necessary to qualify for higher paying careers and compound growth on saving from those higher wages, when compared to children with lower reading levels. Their long-term health level estimates are 37% to 59% higher. Their average life expectancy is 7 to 15 years longer. Also, long-term estimates for lifetime happiness levels have increased between 34% to 87%.
 

The dogs are now happier, have less stress, and have a much higher chance of being adopted by someone who will provide them with love at their new forever home.

 

 
 


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