[by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51VOA.COM [00:00.20]In American English we have an expression: [00:03.52]"A dog is a man's best friend." [00:06.80]A dog can also be a child's best friend, [00:11.08]especially if that child is having difficulty reading. [00:16.48]An organization called Reading Education Assistance Dogs, or R.E.A.D, [00:22.56]has been using dogs to help children learn to read since 1999. [00:28.96]The idea is that sharing a book with a kind listener [00:33.08]increases the confidence of the students. [00:36.96]It can also increase their love of reading. [00:41.52]Listeners include Izzy. [00:44.64]Izzy is a cute, scruffy therapy dog [00:47.76]and a regular visitor to Public School 57 (P.S. 57) in East Harlem, New York. [00:53.60]Students meet him in the library, [00:57.04]pick out a book and sit down on the carpet. [01:01.04]Izzy snuggles up to them and gets ready to hear a story. [01:06.40]"I love reading to Izzy because he listens to me, [01:09.72]and he doesn't make fun of me when I make a mistake." [01:13.36]Nine-year-old Aelane Vasquez is in the third grade. [01:17.92]Her parents are from Mexico. [01:20.28]She is among the 15 students of Latin American descent at the school [01:25.92]who were selected for the program. [01:29.16]Bridget McElroy teaches English as a Second Language at P.S. 57. [01:35.76]"All the students that we worked with in the R.E.A.D. program [01:39.08]were behind reading levels at the beginning of the year. [01:41.76]Most of them have caught up to where they should have entered, if not surpassed that." [01:46.08]That achievement is important. [01:48.88]Reading at grade level when kids are young [01:52.04]is linked to how well they will do in school later. [01:56.40]Studies show that kids who can't read as well as they should when they [02:02.88]are nine years old are less likely to graduate high school by the time they are nineteen. [02:08.22]McElroy says she sees a great difference in Aelane and her classmates. [02:15.44]The difference is not just in their reading levels. [02:19.84]She also sees their increased love and excitement of reading. [02:25.72]The teacher calls this phenomenal. [02:29.08]"Not only do the kids have time to practice reading, [02:32.56]what we are really seeing is that they are excited to read, [02:35.80]and they are motivated to practice even when Izzy is not here. [02:39.08]And as a classroom teacher that's phenomenal because, you know, [02:42.84]there is very little that I can do to convince a kid to go home and practice reading, [02:46.24]where 20 minutes a week with Izzy is all that they need." [02:49.56]The R.E.A.D. teams from New York Therapy Animals [02:52.51]work with 175 kids at P.S. 57 t and nine other schools. [02:59.08]The popular program plans to expand to even more schools in New York City next year. [03:06.24]I'm Anna Matteo.