An Old Bridge elementary school is using dog therapy to help improve the English of students of foreign native language.
OLD BRIDGE -- A township elementary school is using dog therapy to improve the language skills of children whose first language is not English.
For a little more than a year, the Leroy Gordon Cooper Elementary School has been running the Readers of the Pack Program in which students read to dogs from the Monmouth County SPCA as a way to bolster their literacy skills and confidence.
Often, students who are not native English speakers are self-conscience about reading out loud, according to creators of the program. Readers of the Pack seeks to reduce that anxiety for the 28 students in grades one through five whose primary language is not English by having them read in a calming and uncritical environment.
"We have students who come from Pakistan, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and they get very nervous speaking aloud," said Brittany Fuentes, an English Second Language (ELS) teacher and co-creator of the program. "So, we're trying to have a nonjudgmental audience for them to build their confidence and make them feel comfortable in school."
Cathy Gramata, principal of the elementary school and co-creator of the program, said she and Fuentes saw that the limited English from the non-native speakers in the school was affecting how they related to other kids.
"We wanted to improve their fluency as far as reading, but we also wanted them to build that social interaction," Gramata said. "Which is good because these students are painfully shy in their limited English proficiency."
While practicing their linguistic skills, the students ask questions, engage in conversation with the SPCA volunteers and journal their experiences -- including "their feelings, comfort levels, and the impact the time spent with the dogs has had on them," according to the program's mission statement.
Gramata said the students have around 10 minutes at the school library to read with a therapy dog.
Bennett Gewirtz, a volunteer handler who visits the school with his certified dog, Daisy, has been involved with pet therapy for about two years.
"This is a very good program because the kids really responded to the dogs," Gewirtz said. "Daisy, who is the type of dog who is calm, loves people -- why not utilize that. She really does make people feel good."
For more information on the Monmouth County SPCA's pet therapy programs, visit monmouthcountyspca.org.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.