It’s often said that both books and dogs are a man’s best friend, so why not combine the two? School children at Crown Primary, Inverness have taken to reading aloud to two retrievers named Blue and Morna.
A probationary teacher at the school named Hannah Earnshaw is spearheading the scheme in an effort to encourage more reluctant readers to read to their canine companions in order to help boost their confidence with reading. Earnshaw had the idea after she read research about the benefits of reading to animals.

As the BBC reports, the children have said they feel happier reading to dogs as they do not ask them to repeat sentences and also give the children time to think about what they’re reading.

Earnshaw said: “The kids that are reading to the dogs rather than reading to me improved significantly more in a reading test than the ones just reading to me. Also, the children who read to the dogs enjoyed the reading experience more than the kids that read to me. So to me that suggests that not only does it have a direct impact on reading, it also impacts on their enjoyment of reading.”

Earnshaw’s Aunt, Catriona Addy, volunteers at Pets as Therapy and managed to arrange for the two dogs to be brought to the school to help with the children’s reading lessons.

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