Bimonthly program lets kids read to a nonjudgmental canine Arlington parents have another option this year for what to do with children in the dog days of summer: Get those kids and dogs in front of a book.
The Arlington Central Library’s new bimonthly program, Paws to Read, lets children read aloud to attentive canines.
“The benefit of the dogs is they’re truly a nonjudgmental audience,” said Julia Karell, the librarian who organized the program. “They’re loving and accepting. If the kids mess up a word, the dogs don’t care.”
Arlington joins a national movement of kids-reading-to-dogs programs, in which kids sit down with a dog and a book at libraries and elementary schools. The District and Fairfax and Montgomery counties have similar programs.
Librarians said reading to dogs gives kids practice and boosts confidence.
“It doesn’t feel like work. It’s fun. It’s good for reluctant readers,” said Julie Kulikowski, who started a program at several D.C. libraries.
A study done last year by researchers at the University of California at Davis showed that reading to dogs improved children’s reading fluency by 30 percent over 10 weeks.
Jennifer Williams’ 9-year-old daughter, Rachel, attended almost every session at the Arlington library so far. Williams said her daughter, who has dyslexia but enjoys reading books about cats to the dogs, started a year behind in reading and is now starting to read at her grade level.
“I think the biggest thing is she’s more relaxed,” Williams said. “She gets to interact with the dog, and she gets to interact with the dog’s handler, and she doesn’t have someone correcting her continually.”
The dogs and their owners volunteer through People Animals Love, a nonprofit group that certifies the dogs and screens them for docility. Dogs of all shapes and sizes participate in the library programs, including one “enormous Rottweiler,” said Laurel Edwards, spokeswoman for the group.
“The Rottweiler is the size of three children, and he just lays there and puts his paws on the book,” she said.
Karell said every Paws to Read session in Arlington has been full so far, and she’s hoping to expand the program to libraries in Shirlington and Columbia Pike.
