Story dog improves skills

Year 2 students at St Vincent’s Primary School are improving their reading and communication skills with help from a special visitor.

Jasmine the Story Dog is a five-year-old yellow labrador, whose job is not to judge or criticise, just to be there and listen.

She visits students every Thursday, with individual children having the opportunity to spend 20 minutes reading to Jasmine outside in the nature play area.

Story Dogs co-ordinator and teacher Bianca Van Ryt said Jasmine had been officially screened before her assignment to St Vincent’s.

“Jasmine comes along each week with her own bag of books which the kids can choose from and so far the program has been a huge success,” Ms Van Ryt said.

“Story Dogs is all about encouraging students to have fun with their reading and to help them gain confidence.

“We are one of only a handful of WA schools lucky enough to have this fantastic program up and running.”

After speaking to parents about the Story Dogs initiative, Ms Van Ryt said there had been two more dog volunteers come forward to take part in the screening process.

“We would love for all of our Year 2 students to have access to this program and hopefully there will be more dogs visiting next year,” she said.

During Jasmine’s first visit to the school, St Vincent’s staff enlisted the help of an RSPCA inspector who taught the children how best to approach and behave around a working dog.