[Spotlight Post] Elvis the R.E.A.D. Therarpy Dog
This week’s spotlight isn’t on a person or even an event – even though FenCon is (gulp) next week. But if you’re looking for a really good SF convention in the Dallas/Fort Worth, come check it out September 21-23, 2012. But… to this week’s Spotlight is on ELVIS… no not the legendary singer, Elvis the hound dog. An incredibly adorable dog.
Me and Elvis at the East Texas Book Fest.
Technically Elvis is a nearly 70 pound Golden Retriever, and he’s a spotlight today because Elvis helps kid read…and he has his own book now. And he’s just one of the biggest, fluffiest hunks of love I’ve ever encountered when it comes to books, reading, or…nearly anything else.
I met Elvis and his human, Gina Smith, at the East Texas Book Festival in Tyler. He is the first “reading education assistance dog” (R.E.A.D.) I’ve ever met. Though trained as a full-fledged therapy dog, Elvis not only goes into hospitals and therapy centers to work with physical therapy and those with mental illness, he’s now going into schools to help kids.
Elvis is a sharp dressed dog.
The R.E.A.D. program takes a lot of fear out of reading out loud. I don’t know about you, but until I was an adult, professional writer, reading aloud to people was a scary, traumatic thing. I’ve gotten over it, but many never do. That’s where Elvis comes in. Elvis, and other dogs trained like him, give kids an audience that just sits – or lies – there and listens.
As Smith and others say, Elvis doesn’t judge, criticize, or correct. He’s just there for the kids, though sometimes he’ll put his paw on the pages… to help turn them. By allowing kids to read to Elvis, many times on a one-on-one basis, they gain confidence and proficiency in their reading, and it helps reinforce how important reading is in life.
Such a sweet face…
Gina Smith wrote a story called “Elvis Wants to Know…Did I Ask You?” in which all the illustrations are done by the kids who read to Elvis. According to Smith, when she started the project, some kids didn’t know what an illustration even was. Now they’re part of the book. And people can now interact with Elvis, he’s started his own blog. This Elvis will be in the building for quite a while.