Visiting dogs enhance College School curriculum

College School students Maggie (left) and Kyle (right) take turns reading to Bailey the golden retriever and his owner Buffy Heldt.

4:46 p.m., May 17, 2005--Bailey the golden retriever stretched out on the floor of a classroom in The College School, clearly relaxed and at ease, as Jim Davis’ students patted her silky coat and read aloud from the book Flat Stanley.

“She’s a great audience because she listens and she doesn’t criticize,” Davis said. “The kids love having her here. After all, how often do you get to have a dog in your classroom?”

Actually, dogs have been regular visitors this year to the private school for children with learning differences, located in Alison Hall on the UD campus. They and their owners are volunteers with PAWS for People, a nonprofit organization that provides therapeutic visits with trained and affectionate pets. Many of the visits are to area nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and schools.

Jeanne Geddes-Key, Emily L. Phelps Director of The College School, said students and teachers have been delighted with the visits to campus. In addition to Bailey, the school has hosted Boo, a yellow lab; Beethoven, a St. Bernard; and Radar, a greyhound who sometimes dons oversized plastic eyeglasses when he joins a reading group.

Younger children at the school generally spend their time reading to the dogs, their fingers entwined in the soft fur of the animal lying at their feet, while the older students have incorporated the visits into their science and writing lessons. One class wrote descriptive paragraphs about the dogs and then branched out to a creative writing assignment in which they described pets from alien planets.

Teachers say the dogs help students develop empathy, communication skills, responsibility and self-esteem and are a calming influence, Geddes-Key said.

Davis, whose class read to Bailey during a visit on Friday, May 13, said the children easily establish a bond with each canine visitor. Especially for youngsters who have reading challenges, he said, the dog’s presence motivates them and also lessens the stress they sometimes feel when reading aloud in class.

Bailey’s owner, Buffy Heldt, said her own children often read to their pet. She said she volunteered with PAWS for People shortly after moving to Delaware because she knew Bailey’s gentle and affectionate temperament would fit the organization’s goals. After some specialized PAWS training, she and Bailey began scheduling visits to nursing homes and The College School.

“This is a new program for us this year, and everyone has loved having it,” Geddes-Key said. “The children—even the middle-school-age students—have been totally responsive and have benefited from having the dogs here.”

Article by Ann Manser
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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