/Doctor Who thread?

Interesting. Time to look for a companion for my little one then.

*Facepalm*
/Good one, subby!

You see, if you can explain the story in simple enough terms that the dog can understand it, then your dog isn't as dumb as mine.

Research shows kids improve reading by reading to anything.

/FTFY

Squawky: /Doctor Who thread?

Affirmative!

Also, I read about this somewhere a couple months back. I think it's very cool, and my elementary school teacher cousin I forwarded it to is trying to bring the program to her school.

"Affirmative!"

I'll be in my reading lab.

My neighbors tried this, now their dog goes to the library and their kid licks his balls.

FTA: ...the students who read to the dogs experienced a slight gain in their reading ability and improvement in their attitudes toward reading...Those who read to people experienced a decrease on both measures, the study says.

Yes, little known fact: if you keep reading out loud to people for too long, you start to lose the ability to read. It can even lead to complete illiteracy. To counteract five minutes of out-loud reading to another human, you have to spend at least thirty minutes reading silently to yourself, fifteen minutes reading to a dog, or one minute reading to a cat or owl.

Hasn't this been known for at least a decade? I know I met a reading specialist who had a dog for the express purpose of allowing children to read to it years ago. Also, I encouraged my kids to read aloud to our dogs. It gives the kids practice and the dogs love the attention. I used to get so tickled watching our goofy dogs shove their noses into the book and hearing one of the kids say "I'll show you the picture when I finish reading the page."

Just like reading to Neshaminy, PA's teachers, no feedback. "Work-to-Contract"

small>way to go unions...

Researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University say second-grade students who read aloud to a dog during the summer seem to maintain their reading skills.

hehehehe.

Okay, my juvenile humor aside, this sounds a bit crappish. Continuing to read should improve the child's ability, regardless of to whom they're reading. What I'm guessing is skewing these results is that kids love dogs, so they're getting positive reinforcement and playtime all at once. I don't think we'd see any difference if their parents set aside special time for their kids to read to them. Not a "sit at the table and read to me while I do dishes" deal but a "sit down and read to me and then we'll talk about your favorite character" thing.

In a related study, it's been discovered that dogs improve their bite strength over 50% through repetitive biting of yappy kids.

Ratusfactorius: FTA: ...the students who read to the dogs experienced a slight gain in their reading ability and improvement in their attitudes toward reading...Those who read to people experienced a decrease on both measures, the study says.

Yes, little known fact: if you keep reading out loud to people for too long, you start to lose the ability to read. It can even lead to complete illiteracy. To counteract five minutes of out-loud reading to another human, you have to spend at least thirty minutes reading silently to yourself, fifteen minutes reading to a dog, or one minute reading to a cat or owl.

That sounds remarkably like a helicopter-parent theory: If they read to an adult, then the adult criticizes and corrects and that reduces the child's confidence and positive attitude. We can't have criticism and loss of self-confidence now can we?

Ratusfactorius: FTA: ...the students who read to the dogs experienced a slight gain in their reading ability and improvement in their attitudes toward reading...Those who read to people experienced a decrease on both measures, the study says.

Yes, little known fact: if you keep reading out loud to people for too long, you start to lose the ability to read. It can even lead to complete illiteracy. To counteract five minutes of out-loud reading to another human, you have to spend at least thirty minutes reading silently to yourself, fifteen minutes reading to a dog, or one minute reading to a cat or owl.

I suspect the reason they are seeing a decline in reading ability among some of the children who read aloud to people is because of the criticism some folks are dumping on the kids. If someone is correcting you every syllable of the way, you might well lose interest in the endeavor. The dog doesn't correct. He just sits there entranced by every word that tumbles out of the kids' mouth. The dog thinks the kid is pretty smart. Soon, the kid starts thinking s/he is pretty smart. Next thing you know, you have an avid reader on your hands.

EuphoniumEuphoria: Interesting. Time to look for a companion for my little one then.

This. :)

Arachnophobe: Also, I read about this somewhere a couple months back. I think it's very cool, and my elementary school teacher cousin I forwarded it to is trying to bring the program to her school.

Farking awesome. I hope she has some luck with it. (Although I worry about the whole "my snowflake is terrified of dogs" BS)

Researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University say second-grade students who read aloud to a dog during the summer seem to maintain their reading skills.

Silly scienticians. Everyone knows practice makes perfect no matter who or what your reading too.

Lunaville: hearing one of the kids say "I'll show you the picture when I finish reading the page."

Lunaville: The dog thinks the kid is pretty smart. Soon, the kid starts thinking s/he is pretty smart. Next thing you know, you have an avid reader on your hands.

Aw shiat. Now I'm verklempt. *sniffle*

I gotta get a dog now.

That research is kind of dumb. Kid will improve their reading skills by...wait for it...READING! They'll improve their speaking skills by reading aloud, but it doesn't have to be aloud to a dog. They can read to a dog or a parent or a friend or a wall or a rock. Just encourage the little snowflakes to read. Read anything!

Oh, and Tom Baker will always be my favorite Doctor (my "first Doctor" as a kid), but Eccleston and Tennant were both wonderful for totally different reasons. I also quite enjoy Jon Pertwee for some reason.

And Sarah Jane was the best companion - You're wrong if you think otherwise. I'll entertain no arguments about that.

cgraves67: Ratusfactorius: FTA: ...the students who read to the dogs experienced a slight gain in their reading ability and improvement in their attitudes toward reading...Those who read to people experienced a decrease on both measures, the study says.

Yes, little known fact: if you keep reading out loud to people for too long, you start to lose the ability to read. It can even lead to complete illiteracy. To counteract five minutes of out-loud reading to another human, you have to spend at least thirty minutes reading silently to yourself, fifteen minutes reading to a dog, or one minute reading to a cat or owl.

That sounds remarkably like a helicopter-parent theory: If they read to an adult, then the adult criticizes and corrects and that reduces the child's confidence and positive attitude. We can't have criticism and loss of self-confidence now can we?

Well, lack of confidence is a known motivator. I know there is nothing like lack of confidence to make me want to try to learn a new skill and nothing keeps me fired up like "No, stupid, that is not how you cast on! Don't you even know how to knit? What the hell are they teaching you at that damned knitting club?"

I heard that reading to K-9 is especially helpful. He'll politely correct your mistakes.

Reading to a Dalek, however, will merely cause you to be ex-ter-mi-na-ted.

Your dog wants Walter the Farting Dog and Old Yeller.

Lunaville: Well, lack of confidence is a known motivator. I know there is nothing like lack of confidence to make me want to try to learn a new skill and nothing keeps me fired up like "No, stupid, that is not how you cast on! Don't you even know how to knit? What the hell are they teaching you at that damned knitting club?"

It's entirely possible to listen to your children read--helping them with words that they get wrong or don't know--without calling them stupid or trampling their confidence. Also, praising them when they get it right is a good thing.

sulco: Your dog wants Walter the Farting Dog and Old Yeller.

Your dog probably hates the ending of Old Yeller.

/Just saying.

I don't know, Davey...

Craptastic: That research is kind of dumb. Kid will improve their reading skills by...wait for it...READING! They'll improve their speaking skills by reading aloud, but it doesn't have to be aloud to a dog. They can read to a dog or a parent or a friend or a wall or a rock. Just encourage the little snowflakes to read. Read anything!

Oh, and Tom Baker will always be my favorite Doctor (my "first Doctor" as a kid), but Eccleston and Tennant were both wonderful for totally different reasons. I also quite enjoy Jon Pertwee for some reason.

And Sarah Jane was the best companion - You're wrong if you think otherwise. I'll entertain no arguments about that.

Again, the trick, and it is a kind of trick, is the dog loves the attention. Trying reading to your own dog sometime. It doesn't matter what you read. Unlike a wall or a rock, or your spouse who has a different idea of what constitutes literature, your dog will love every moment that you read to him. He will sit as close to you as you let him, poke his nose in the book, and look at you like you are the most brilliant human ever. It will even seem, at times, as though he really understands what you are reading.

Of course, having the child read to a dog should not be a substitute for having the child read to a parent or even more important, in my opinion, a parent reading to a child. I'm a big believer in reading aloud to your child until he goes to college. I think the books read aloud to the child should mostly be a bit beyond his own reading level. I may read more 19th century literature this year: some Jules Verne, Herman Melville, that sort of thing. I'm definitely reading Bram Strokers' Dracula to them this fall. They are old enough for the themes. I read Frankenstein to them a couple of years ago and enjoyed hearing their discussions in the car about it. Last year, I read Kafkas' Metamorphosis to them. They were delightfully freaked out: scared in a fun no nightmares kind of way. Last spring, I started reading aloud select news articles. Of course, newspaper articles aren't, generally speaking, going to stretch a persons' vocabulary very much. I'm thinking of subscribing to some sort of science magazine and reading some articles aloud from it?

For those of you who have babies, start reading now. There's so little childhood and so many books.

Cybernetic: sulco: Your dog wants Walter the Farting Dog and Old Yeller.

Your dog probably hates the ending of Old Yeller.

It killed him to see Old Yeller die.

You could always read to a Sontaran, kiddies...



...or maybe not.

I wish this worked with cats, but my two tard cats just put their ears back, hiss, then roll over to lick their private parts.

sulco: Cybernetic: sulco: Your dog wants Walter the Farting Dog and Old Yeller.

Your dog probably hates the ending of Old Yeller.

It killed him to see Old Yeller die.

Walter the Farting Dog, however, is a classic right up there with Harry the Dirty Dog. "Why it's Harry!" the children cried.

NakedApe: My neighbors tried this, now their dog goes to the library and their kid licks his balls.

Happy dog.

cherryl taggart: I wish this worked with cats, but my two tard cats just put their ears back, hiss, then roll over to lick their private parts.

Taggart?



Therrrrrrrre's been a murrrrrrrrrder!

oh poop

You can excise the last 4 words of that sentence. Just add whatever makes it more fun for the child to the end of that and you're golden.

brantgoose: They're not Kliban, but the cartoonist is pretty good. I had one which read "Cat wants in" which showed a cat hanging on a screen door. I cut up a Kliban diary and made homemade fridge magnets with some of his cartoons. Very funny. I use magnetic business cards which I glue to the back or to cardboard backing when I use a newspaper cartoon.

Have you watched the Simon's Cat cartoons on Youtube? I really love them. They're short, so it won't hurt you to go take a peek. :)

Dogs were probably more dependable than the people used in the study.

nucular bum: I heard that reading to K-9 is especially helpful. He'll politely correct your mistakes.

Reading to a Dalek, however, will merely cause you to be ex-ter-mi-na-ted.

They're surprisingly good public speaking instructors, though. "You. Must. E-nun-ci-ate. E-NUN-CI-ATE!"

Lunaville: For those of you who have babies, start reading now. There's so little childhood and so many books.

So very much this. My mother read to me from the day she brought me home from the hospital. One of my earliest memories is reading a new book to her and the absolutely thrilled look on her face. I think it might have been Pickles the Fire Cat, but this is going back close to 35 years. Never had a book out of arm's reach since.

Not so fearsome, really...

Dogs are supposed to eat homemwork.

I agree with the posters who say that dogs are good listeners. I have watched and listened to kids trying to read and the adults they are with (not me, I keep my mouth shut because I don't have a dog in that hunt) get impatient, critical and downright testy.

A dog won't do that. They're just happy to be there.

Kids don't need to have someone riding their asses and correcting what they are reading. They figure out stuff on their own because words come in a context and if they can sort out the context, they can dope out the word they are struggling with. Plus, adults can sometimes act as a crutch. If the kid asks what a particular word is and gets that answered too much, it will slow them down.

I used to read to my baby brother when he was preverbal and I was in 1st grade. Nowadays, kids don't have many younger siblings, so a dog's as good a substitute as any.

I used to read (and sing, poor thing) to my cat when I was a kid, and contrary to what's been said about them, he seemed to love it. He'd fall asleep in my lap to the singing and just sit by my side and listen to me read for as long as I wanted him there. Of course, the cat also rode in my bike basket and the train that went around the Christmas tree, so he might have just been an uncommonly laid-back cat. Nonetheless, I retain my love of reading to this day, so it's not surprising that a dog would have a similar effect.

Squawky: [i55.tinypic.com image 500x375]
/Doctor Who thread?

How was the first half of Season 6?