How do I sum up the journey I’ve been on with my dogs over the past few years in just a couple quick paragraphs? 

Well, I never intended to make animal-assisted speech therapy my “thing”, and I certainly never thought I’d write a book about it.  I was just stuck, trying desperately to find a way to connect with an extremely challenging child who struggled to understand the intentions of others, was easily overwhelmed by his sensory environment, and did everything possible to avoid adult-directed tasks. An extremely challenging child who made it clear every week how much he hated coming to speech and, sometimes, how much he hated me.  But I knew he loved animals as much as I do.

After a couple months of getting nowhere  and feeling desperate to somehow change this child’s trajectory,  I arranged with his mom to bring my dog, Delta Dawn, to a special session to see if we’d at least be able to build a little rapport. 

It. Was. Magic.

Delta immediately sensed his needs, lying her head in his lap while he chatted non-stop about how cute she was and shared stories of his own dog.  I’d never even seen him smile before and here he was relaxed and happy, initiating questions and making spontaneous comments.

As I started bringing Delta more regularly, he gradually transferred his bond with her onto me, increasing his willingness to be challenged and most importantly looking forward to attending our sessions.   As I type this nearly five years later, this young man is weeks away from discharge having met and exceeded his oral and written communication goals. He’s had lots of support from lots of different specialists, but I know that the bond he developed with Delta, and later my other therapy dogs Johnny Utah and Bodhi, was one piece of his puzzle.

I learned so much from my journey sharing the speech therapy dogs with this child and others that I feel compelled to share the things I’d learned.   Unable to find resources to help my when I got started in animal-assisted intervention, I want to help other Speech-Language Pathologists and related professionals to avoid the struggles I faced learning through trial and error.  My examples focus on a pediatric caseload because that’s where I specialize, but I’m confident much of the information can be applied to whatever population you serve.