Guide Dogs has announced a new initiative encouraging all children to read to dogs, including children with vision impairment.
The charity hosted a special reading session at the British Library, where children with different sight loss conditions were encouraged to read to the laidback canine audience using special Guide Dogs’ CustomEyes books.
A recent survey by Guide Dogs highlighted the importance of reading out loud for all children, including those with visual impairment.
91% of adults surveyed reported that they remembered reading aloud had helped improve their literacy skills, but 65% of children reported they felt shy reading in front of their peers.
To combat this fear, Guide Dogs set up the unique event to provide some of the charity’s young service users with dogs to read to instead.
It also gave the dogs a chance to practice being calm and confident in a new environment and interact with some children. Such behaviour is essential for their future roles as guide dogs out and about in public spaces.
“At Guide Dogs, we believe in the power of reading to transform lives.” said Kerry Kernan, Head of Children, Young People and Families at Guide Dogs.
“It is crucial that every child is able to access books and to immerse themselves in exciting stories. Our CustomEyes books are designed to make reading accessible and enjoyable for children with a variety of different sight loss conditions, by increasing text size, changing font style and even adjusting background colours of the pages.
“We found that only 60% of children with vision impairment enjoy reading compared to 78% of their sighted peers. Confidence is doubtless a big part of that gap. A patient audience can work wonders when you’re getting to grips with tricky pronunciation and sounding out letters. That’s why reading to dogs can be a lovely option – they don’t mind if the story gets a bit tangled up.”
The special reading session at the British Library also served to promote the Summer Reading Challenge, an initiative aimed at encouraging children to continue reading over the summer holidays.
For more information about Guide Dogs and CustomEyes books, visit www.guidedogs.org.uk
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