Website of the Day - Dog Play

When I first started teaching the hospital/school I worked in was partnered with an animal assisted therapy program. My classroom was visited weekly by a beautiful dog named Sallie and her owner. My students loved those visits. They would work harder at physical skills like reaching and grasping to groom Sallie and would use their communication devices to give Sallie commands with less latency and more focus than on most other tasks.

Pet assisted therapy may be, along with music and other expressive therapies, one of the most under-utilized means of improving outcomes and quality of life for learners with multiple special needs. This is sad because many animal assisted therapy program are run on a completely volunteer, free-of-charge basis.

Dog Play is a website which presents a broad range of information about animal assisted therapy. The best part is they link to national and local animal assisted therapy agencies.