Children’s Literacy Has Gone to the Dogs

Officially, we stopped running pictures of your cats and dogs on Christmas Eve, but Harley is actually… well, we wouldn’t go so far as to call him a publishing industry professional, but he is a literacy volunteer who’s registered with the Reading Education Assistance Dogs program, working with autistic children and other struggling young readers. According to Harley’s owner, consulting editor Karen Grove, reading aloud to dogs like Harley helps children concentrate on what they’re reading rather than worrying about being judged by human listeners, and it helps reduce their blood pressure, too.

This program sounds awesome; we immediately started looking for more details about how R.E.A.D. works, and if you’re equally captivated, you can find a program in your area or perhaps even start your own chapter.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.