Sandi Martin had two great loves— dogs and reading. As a nurse and intensive care unit manager at a Salt Lake City hospital, she saw the healing power of therapy dogs that visited her hospital. Then, in the middle of the night, she had an inspiration. Could dogs have the same kind of impact with kids struggling to read as they had helping sick patients recover?
Sandi told her friend Kathy Klotz about her idea. Klotz is the executive director of Intermountain Therapy Animals (ITA). ITA is a nonprofit group that provides animal-assisted therapy. Martin and Klotz asked the public library if ITA could bring therapy dogs into the library for a four-week trial program. They would test the idea of having kids read to dogs. That was in the fall of 1999. Twenty-one years later, the program is still going strong. It’s called the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) program.
R.E.A.D. was so popular that Intermountain Therapy Animals decided to try it in an elementary school. Kids who had trouble reading were matched up with a dog and its human handler. Each week, the students would read to the dog—and their reading improved. Klotz noted that the idea was so simple and so successful that it was hard to believe no one had thought of it before. Now, similar programs for kids to read to dogs have spread throughout the US and around the world. They have names like Tail Waggin’ Tutors, Paws for Reading, Reading with Rover, and Sit, Stay, Read.
THE TEDDY BEAR STUDY
But does it really work? Do scores on reading tests improve? Would students get the same benefits by reading to an adult, or to a stuffed animal?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2020 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2020 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.