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Member Spotlight: Reading dog aids Waukesha classes
Posted: 8/25/2010 4:06:22 PM
A couple of days a week Waukesha special education teacher Helen Burton brings a helper in during reading and math lessons. Tabby is extremely patient, loves getting read to and gives the students a boost of confidence. In fact, she loves the attention, and the petting, too.
Tabby, Burton’s part-dachshund rescue dog, visited young students in Waukesha last year and could do so again this year. Licensed as a therapy dog, Tabby sits with students as they go over their reading lessons. She listens attentively to the students during 10-minute reading sessions, offering a reassuring audience.
“The kids really look forward to the reading time,” Burton said. “They feel confident reading to the dog because the dog’s not going to judge them.”
Burton was at a conference for special education teachers when she saw a presentation on therapy dogs. Thinking of Tabby, Burton wrote a grant proposal on the website DonorsChoose.org for books, shelves and cushions to create a reading nook for students. U.S. Cellular funded the grant, and Tabby soon began making visits to reading time.
“She was so good-natured with my own kids I thought she’d be great with my students,” Burton said. “Everyone just falls in love with her.”
Tabby underwent good citizen training from the American Kennel Club (to gauge temperament around others) and became licensed through Therapy Dogs International as a therapy dog to visit those in nursing homes, hospitals and schools.
During Burton’s one-year assignment in Janesville, Tabby was a hit, and Burton took her to Waukesha classrooms after moving there.
“She likes to be right next to the kids,” Burton said. “She just loves the attention.”
Burton brought Tabby into Waukesha’s Hillcrest Elementary School last year, after permission slips were signed and administration got on board. Tabby read with special education and math intervention students in the K-3 school.
If permission slips and approval goes well again in the fall, Burton said she would like to bring Tabby along to her new work place: Waukesha STEM Academy, a science, technology, engineering and math charter school run by the School District of Waukesha.
Burton said her idea has been expanded in Janesville after she left, with at least three teachers bringing in therapy dogs to read to students.
“Tabby paved the way,” Burton said.
To watch a TV news segment about Burton and Tabby, click here.
