The mission of the R.E.A.D. program is to improve the literacy skills of children through the assistance of registered therapy teams as literacy mentors.

About

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) program improves children’s reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to an animal. But not just any animal. R.E.A.D. companions are registered therapy animals who volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team, going to schools, libraries, and many other settings as reading companions for children.

R.E.A.D. is the first program that uses therapy animals to help children improve their reading and communication skills and teaches them to love books and reading. It has been growing worldwide since November 1999 when ITA launched in Salt Lake City. More than 6,000 therapy teams have trained and registered with the program and are going strong!

Today, thousands of registered R.E.A.D. teams work throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 24 other European, Asian, Central American, and South American countries. R.E.A.D. is one of those ideas that, in Bill Moyers's words, “pierces the mundane to arrive at the marvelous.” Click below for more information.

Note: You must be a current registered therapy team to participate in the R.E.A.D. program.