As part of the Outreach team we have a furry member of the team called Bonnie. She is a qualified Therapy dog who can be part of 1.1 and small group sessions when she is available.

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The benefits of a Therapy dog

Therapy dogs have been proven to help develop Pupils’ reading skills, improve behaviour, attendance and academic confidence, as well as increasing student understanding of responsibility and in the development of empathy and nurturing skills. Aspire Outreach hope that having a therapy dog will be a beneficial addition to our therapeutic offer, in addition to the interventions we already offer and promoting engagement for those children who have found it difficult to access talking therapies in the past.

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Animal assisted interventions (also known as AAI’s) can:

• Teach empathy and appropriate interpersonal skills;

• Help individuals develop social skills;

• Be soothing;

• Improve a child’s ability to pick up on social cues which are imperative to human relationships;

• Therapy dogs have been shown to support emotional regulation through the positive impact on the autonomic nervous system

• Show that children working with therapy dogs have experienced increased improved motivation for learning, resulting in improved outcomes;

• Therapy dogs are being used to support children with their social and emotional learning needs, which can also aid literacy development.

 

Research into the effects of therapy dogs in schools is showing a range of benefits including:

• Increase in school attendance;

• Improved confidence;

• Decreased pupil anxiety resulting in improvements in learning, such as increases in reading and writing levels;

• Improved motivation to learn;

• Enhanced relationships with peers and teachers due to experiencing trust and unconditional positive interactions with a therapy dog;

• Helping children learn how to express their feelings and enter into more trusting relationships.

•  Increase social skills and self-esteem

• Teach responsibility and respect to all life

 

Bonnie is fully insured and comes with a Risk assessment to ensure the safety of both her and everyone who comes in to contact with her. As this is a bespoke service we can offer, this will need to be discussed with the Strategic Lead for Outreach as there is additional information to be shared.

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