Telling Tails: Kids gain confidence, skill through “Read to Dogs”

Nevan Jayakumar reads to Calvin & Hobbes

On a recent Tuesday evening in Camp Hill, the seats inside the Cleve J. Fredricksen Library’s youth section filled with a special group of visitors: therapy dogs and their owners.

The Read to Dogs program at the library invites children through age 12 to read to these furry listeners, allowing them to become more confident in their reading skills and overcome anxieties about reading aloud.

John Heil and his children have been attending Read to Dogs, along with many other library programs, for years.

His 10-year-old daughter, Frannie, said that she loves to snuggle with the pups while reading her favorite genres: graphic novels and autobiographies. On top of the joy of reading to the dogs, her reading speed has improved during timed exercises at school, she said, going from 110 to more than 140 words per minute.

“The dogs paying attention to them reinforces what they are doing,” Heil said. “I don’t know why it works, but it works. If kids are struggling or if you’re just trying to find a way to get kids to read, this is a great program.”

All of the dogs and owners involved in the Read to Dogs program are trained and certified through Keystone Pet Enhanced Therapy Services (KPETS), a Lancaster County-based organization that trains dogs to serve in many therapeutic capacities.

When Joan Miller of Lower Allen Township retired from the Army in 2023, she decided to train her black Lab, Layla, to be a therapy dog through KPETS. She now brings Layla to listen to children read at the library twice a month.

“I love to see how the kids and dog bond,” she said. “As they feel more relaxed, you can see the progress in their reading over the weeks.”

Favorites of many of the young readers in the Read to Dogs program are Calvin and Hobbes, a pair of miniature Australian Labradoodles owned by Gregg Maberry of Mechanicsburg. The littermates are now 14 years old, and the regular interaction with the children at the library keeps them young, he says.

Pet therapy is a “win-win-win,” Maberry said—for the dogs, owners, the children and parents alike.

“I love to hear the kids reading, and they always have things to share about what’s going on (in their lives),” he said.

Participating in the program has inspired some young readers to create their own stories. Ten-year-old Corabelle Black wrote and illustrated two stories about dogs, one of which features many of the therapy dogs she’s met at the library.

Reading to and interacting with the dogs have helped Corabelle be more comfortable in social situations, said her mother, Carrie.

“After COVID, she had a lot of anxiety being around other people,” Carrie said. “I can see her being more self-confident. I wish they had an adult version.”

The Read to Dogs program does more than help improve reading skills. Some children have overcome a fear of dogs by interacting with the KPETS pups, and several participants who are on the autism spectrum find the interaction with the dogs therapeutic, said Gelene Keever, who coordinates the program.

“It has morphed into something broader that helps kids on so many different levels,” she said.

Nevan Jayakumar is one of these participants. Read to Dogs has allowed Nevan to discover books that he likes to read, helping him be more motivated to read and, ultimately, improving his reading scores in school, said his mother, Bernadette. Nevan also had a fear of dogs, which the program has helped to lessen.

“People with children on the spectrum have trouble finding resources, but there is more out there,” like the library-based programs, she said.

On a recent Tuesday evening, Nevan read to Xander, a collie owned by Marcy Prejean of Lewisberry. When he struggled and wanted to stop, encouragement from his mother and the comfort of Xander kept him going.

“This is why I do this,” Prejean said.