KIDS READ MORE IF THERE IS A DOG IN THE ROOM

A study from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan says that children will read more if they are in the presence of a dog. The research team studied the reading patterns of 17 children (* Jeeze, 17 whole test subjects!) without a dog present, and then again with a dog nearby. Each child was either a first, second, or third grader. The children were asked to read aloud both with and without a therapy dog present in the room. Across both scenarios, the children were asked if they wanted to continue reading after finishing the first page of the story they were provided. The children spent significantly more time reading and showed more persistence when a dog – regardless of breed or age – was in the room as opposed to when they read without them. In addition, the children reported feeling more interested and more competent.
* The library will let you check out dogs now?
* The dogs would whine when the children stopped reading ’cause they wanted to know how the story ended.
* Well, it’s not like people are going to buy dogs so their kids will read more. Will it work with a picture of a dog?
* I’m no scientist, but when you run a study shouldn’t you use more than 17 test subjects, for longer than about 30 seconds each?
* Maybe they could only get the university conference room for, like, 20 minutes.