Ever since bringing in our trusted therapy dog (in training) Ritter, we love reading stories about other clinics using the power of “Animal Assisted Therapy” to assist their children in speech and language therapy! A few weeks ago we were cruising through the internet and ran into this wonderful story of another retriever, Oliver, making a difference in the kids lives that he interacts with.
The 2-year-old retriever has become a popular member of the Southeastern Louisiana University’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic’s team. The staff says that one of the greatest joys of having Oliver on “staff” is the fact that children love to talk to him, and open up, which is something that we have seen with our very own pup too!
“A lot of children show excitement about Oliver and like to talk to him. Some, who were difficult to work for therapists to work with, are more willing to participate in their sessions if Oliver is present,” said a speech therapist on the team.
We encourage you to read this wonderful feel good story, and to follow our dear friend Ritter on facebook
as he continues on his path to become a full-fledged therapy dog!