Four-Legged Friends Help Young Australian Kids to Read

Across the world, the literacy rates among children are surprisingly low. In Australia, 12.6% of Australian adults have a literacy level of one or below.

In an effort to improve confidence around literacy, as well as the skills on the whole, an initiative has started in Australia called Story Dogs, which has been working with children in schools across New South Wales.

The Story Behind Story Dogs

Story Dogs began fourteen years ago in Murwillumbah, on the North Coast of New South Wales. It took inspiration from a similar program in the United States.

Most recently, the initiative has claimed great success, spreading across seventy-five locations and working in three hundred and fifty-five schools in Australia, working with more than five hundred and sixty volunteers.

The literacy program that Story Dogs works on is based on the READ model, Reading Education Assistance Dogs. The model has proven the educational benefits of reading to dogs and has been used since 1999.

The program uses the calming presence of the dog to support comprehension in twenty-minute reading sessions. The volunteers are guided and taught to work with the children at their own pace.

How Does It Work?

The volunteers that work with Story Dogs will often speak to the child through the dog. This allows them to adapt to the learning environment, reducing the pressure and stress on the child.

This might look like, “Fido doesn’t understand what’s happening on this page, could you tell him again?”. This encourages the child’s confidence by giving them the opportunity to ‘teach’ the dog as opposed to simply reading out loud.

In some cases, just having someone or something there to listen without judgment as the students read aloud can help. Often, the dogs allow the students to lie on them and cuddle with them when they need to take a break. This gives the students a real opportunity to calm down and take a breath, which can be instrumental in a positive reading session, especially with students who might have additional needs or neurodivergence.

Testimonies

It is very clear that what Story Dogs are doing, works. There are hundreds of stories from teachers and children whose lives have been changed by the initiative.

Teachers like John Galea, have been quoted on the Story Dogs website, saying, “Story Dogs has been a game changer for many of our disadvantaged students at Gillwinga Public School. We have a high number of students with ADHD, ASD, and trauma and we have found that ‘Rusty’ has not only broken barriers in terms of reading instruction for many of our kids, but has also been instrumental in helping them learn to regulate their emotional responses and provide joy in their lives. You can see their faces light up when he enters the school gate, and the students are always begging to read with ‘Rusty’.”

A volunteer with Story Dogs recounted one of her experiences, talking about a dog who worked with a “little boy who wouldn’t read in front of the class or the teacher, but by the end of the time he had spent with the dog he was quite confident to stand up there in front of the class and read a story.”

The Volunteers

Everyone who works with Story Dogs does so because they are passionate about literacy and the kids who need that extra bit of support. They strive to be calming and non-judgmental in order to best ease the nerves of the kids they work with.

With good training, wonderful four-legged friends and the benefit of a one-on-one environment, the volunteers are able to really benefit the kids they work with.

One volunteer, Helen Barnett, works for Story Dogs with a Labrador, Piper. The duo worked with Kempsey East Primary School back in 2023 and changed the lives of the students there. Helen is a retired teacher and now gets to use her skills and experience in a one-on-one environment to make real, visible change.

When asked about Story Dogs, Helen said “Our mission is to make reading fun for children and to encourage them to be confident, lifelong readers. Piper has the most plaid nature, so she really suits the Story Dogs philosophy… the children use her as a pillow or lie on her … When they first start, the children are a bit hesitant, but then they develop confidence reading to the dog.”

What Kind of Dogs and What Kind of Students?

There are all sorts of dogs that work for this sort of project. The most important deciding factor is simply that the dog enjoys the process, and can handle being around children. The program works with dogs of all shapes and sizes. All sorts of animals have worked with the company, from small ross-breeds, and terriers, to the bigger dogs like Helen’s Labrador.

In terms of students, Story Dogs works with a range of students, but they must all be primary school age. Many of the students the group works with have additional needs such as ADHD and ASD.