The landscape of childhood education, particularly in literacy, has been significantly reshaped by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. With traditional classroom learning disrupted and transitioning online, many parents found themselves taking on new roles in their children’s education. This shift highlighted the need for accessible and effective at-home learning supports. Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI), previously showing promise in school settings for enhancing children’s literacy, sparked interest in adapting these programs for the home environment. This pilot project investigates the feasibility and potential benefits of an at-home AAI literacy program, exploring its impact on children’s reading levels and parental stress. The findings suggest that while adapting AAI for home use is possible, its effectiveness and impact on parental stress require careful consideration and further research.
The Growing Role of Animal-Assisted Interventions in Literacy
Over the last two decades, Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI), particularly those involving dogs, have become increasingly integrated into educational settings. Research consistently demonstrates the multifaceted benefits of AAI for children, encompassing improvements in mental and physical health, cognitive performance, and crucially, literacy skills. Dog-assisted literacy support programs, such as the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) initiative, have gained traction, with early studies indicating positive effects on reading scores for struggling readers. More rigorous research, employing control groups and standardized assessments, continues to support these findings, suggesting that AAI with dogs can positively influence reading comprehension, rate, and accuracy.
The underlying mechanism for AAI’s positive influence on literacy is often attributed to its ability to reduce reading-related stress and anxiety in children. Theoretical models suggest that AAIs can foster positive emotions, thereby decreasing the stress response and creating a more conducive environment for intrinsic motivation. This is supported by evidence showing increased intrinsic motivation for reading, improved mood, reduced perceived stress, and enhanced feelings of security in children participating in AAI.
Adapting AAI for the Home Environment Amidst the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to online learning, impacting children’s literacy development. Studies indicated a stagnation or even regression in oral reading fluency, particularly among younger and lower-income students. While some research suggests that increased formal at-home literacy activities could help mitigate these learning losses, the capacity of parents to effectively provide this support, given their own evolving work and family responsibilities, remained a question. The pandemic undoubtedly amplified parental stress, with a significant portion attributed to uncertainty about how to best support their children’s online learning.
Recognizing these challenges, this pilot project aimed to explore two key questions: (a) Could an in-school dog-assisted literacy support be adapted for at-home application? and (b) Might such an adaptation benefit children’s reading abilities while simultaneously alleviating parental stress? This study represents a novel investigation into the potential of at-home AAI literacy support.
Methodology: A Pilot Study in At-Home AAI
This pilot project was initially planned for the fall of 2020 but was postponed to the summer of 2021 due to recruitment challenges. The study was conducted with 8 parent-child dyads in Alberta, Canada, who provided informed consent and had institutional research ethics board approval. Participants were required to have internet access, a tablet, and a dog aged two years or older, consistent with the requirements of local AAI organizations that deem younger dogs too immature for such activities.
Participants and Measures
The study included 8 children (6 girls, 2 boys) with an average age of 7 years and 2 months, entering grade 3. All children were from monolingual English-speaking homes. The participating parents were mothers, with an average age of 37 years, possessing varying levels of educational attainment and employment status.
Demographic information, including details about the child’s reading abilities and parents’ perceptions of schooling during the pandemic, was collected using online surveys via Qualtrics©. Parental stress was assessed before and after the study using the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), a reliable instrument for measuring perceived stress.
Children’s reading proficiency was estimated through parent-administered assessments of sight word recognition using the Fry Sight Words list (FSW) and by collecting their latest report cards. The FSW list, comprising frequently occurring words, is a recognized tool for identifying and monitoring struggling readers. This information, combined with an expert literacy teacher’s assessment, was used to assign each child a user-unique profile on Raz-Kids©, an online platform providing leveled readers and assessments. The study tracked changes in children’s reading levels within Raz-Kids and analyzed their performance on reading comprehension quizzes.
Procedure
Following informed consent, participants received online instructions and access to a video tutorial demonstrating the at-home AAI literacy support. Over an eight-week period, parents were instructed to engage in weekly reading sessions with their child and dog using Raz-Kids. Each session involved the child listening to a book, then reading it aloud to their family dog while the parent remained present but unobtrusive. The procedure, including petting the dog and showing it pictures, was modeled in a video tutorial. Children were encouraged to read the chosen book multiple times throughout the week and to interact positively with their dog afterward. Parents were also asked to provide positive verbal feedback and physical affection to their child. Each session was estimated to last approximately 20 minutes per week. At the study’s conclusion, parents completed the PSS-10 and a post-study questionnaire.
Findings: Engagement, Stress, and Reading Progress
Parent Surveys and Stress Levels
Prior to the intervention, parents reported their children as reasonably confident readers who generally enjoyed reading. Parents expressed comfort in assisting with homework and believed they could significantly contribute to their child’s understanding of the value of school. Family dogs were described as easy-going, and children were reported to be attached to them. Most participating families were active readers, regularly visiting libraries and reading with their children.
Regarding their children’s schooling during the 2020-21 academic year, most reported in-person schooling, with some experiencing periods of online learning due to COVID-19 contact tracing. Parents expressed mixed feelings about online schooling, not being entirely happy with it and uncertain if their children enjoyed it. They were also ambivalent about whether their children had fallen behind or needed more resources.
Post-intervention, parents found it somewhat difficult to engage their child in the reading program, although they agreed that their children enjoyed reading to the dog and that using Raz-Kids was easy. Notably, a paired t-test revealed a significant increase in parental stress levels from the beginning to the end of the study (p = 0.000), indicating that the intervention, as implemented, did not alleviate but rather exacerbated parental stress.
Reading Performance
The eight participating dyads logged into the Raz-Kids platform an average of 13 times, spending approximately 3 hours and 55 minutes on the program. On average, children listened to 9 books and read 6.6 books aloud. Five of the eight children advanced at least one reading level within Raz-Kids over the 8-week study period. While the average increase in reading level approached significance (p = 0.087), it did not reach statistical significance.
Analysis of Raz-Kids reading comprehension scores indicated strong performance across various categories, including cause and effect (73% accuracy), main ideas and details (74% accuracy), inferences (90% accuracy), sequence of events (80.5% accuracy), story elements (80% accuracy), and vocabulary recall (83.5% accuracy). These scores suggest that, overall, the children maintained good to strong reading comprehension throughout the study.
Discussion: Potential and Pitfalls of At-Home AAI
This pilot study indicates that adapting dog-assisted reading supports for home environments is feasible, provided the design and implementation are carefully considered. However, the findings also highlight significant challenges, particularly concerning parental stress. While AAI in schools has demonstrated benefits for reading abilities, the adaptation to a home setting in this study did not yield significant improvements in children’s reading levels and, contrary to the intended outcome, led to a notable increase in parental stress.
Several factors may contribute to these results. Unlike teachers, parents may not possess the specialized skills for detailed literacy reporting or instruction, and the perceived burden of implementing the AAI support, despite clear instructions and resources, may have added to parental stress. The timing of the study, during the summer break and leading into a potentially stressful school year amidst ongoing pandemic uncertainties, could also have significantly influenced parental stress levels. It is plausible that participation in the study became an additional task for already overwhelmed parents, contributing to recruitment difficulties and increased stress.
Limitations of this pilot study include its small sample size, the self-selected nature of participants (who may not have been struggling readers), and the reliance on parent-child determination of book appropriateness, potentially limiting challenges. The absence of a control group for comparison (e.g., children reading to a parent alone) and the use of a “soft” baseline for reading proficiency are also acknowledged limitations.
Future research should carefully consider the timing of interventions, target families who could most benefit, and ensure absolute clarity in instructions. Replication with a control group during the school year is recommended to better assess the efficacy and plausibility of at-home AAI. Despite its limitations, this study offers valuable insights to guide more rigorous future research into at-home AAI literacy supports, emphasizing the need for careful planning regarding implementation, participant selection, and data collection to maximize potential benefits for children’s literacy development.
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