Fung Suk-Chun
Department of Special Education and Counselling, Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Jul 24;9(8):474. doi: 10.3390/ani9080474.
The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an increase in the reading fluency and accuracy of three lower performing third-graders after participating in a canine-assisted read-aloud program, as well as an increase in the relaxation level during and after the program. This study employed a pre-test-post-test design to test the hypotheses that gains would be made in both reading fluency and reading accuracy upon completion of the program. The three grade 3 students were assessed by the Chinese Character Reading Test and the Reading Fluency Test. During the intervention, they read to a trained canine in the presence of a handler. Three days after the completion of the seven 20-min interventions, the participants were assessed by the two standardized reading tests a second time. Heart rate variability (HRV) responses to the pre-test, the intervention and the post-test were recorded. The three grade 3 students attained a higher level of relaxation while reading to the dog and increased their reading fluency after the reading sessions. These results provided preliminary evidence that the canine-assisted read-aloud program can increase the reading performance of children with lower performance. Implications for future research and reading programs will be discussed.
本研究的目的是确定三名成绩较差的三年级学生在参与犬辅助朗读计划后，其阅读流畅性和准确性是否有所提高，以及在计划进行期间和之后放松程度是否有所增加。本研究采用前测-后测设计来检验以下假设：在计划完成后，阅读流畅性和阅读准确性都会有所提高。这三名三年级学生通过汉字阅读测试和阅读流畅性测试进行评估。在干预期间，他们在一名训练员在场的情况下给一只经过训练的犬朗读。在完成七次20分钟的干预三天后，参与者再次通过这两项标准化阅读测试进行评估。记录了前测、干预和后测时的心率变异性（HRV）反应。这三名三年级学生在给狗朗读时达到了更高的放松水平，并且在朗读课程后提高了他们的阅读流畅性。这些结果提供了初步证据，表明犬辅助朗读计划可以提高成绩较差儿童的阅读表现。将讨论对未来研究和阅读计划的启示。
