My 3 Favorite Speech Therapy Dog “Magical Moments” Since Writing Paws for Progress
In Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice, I loved using stories from real life therapy sessions to illustrate various speech therapy dog concepts.
These stories were actually the driving force behind writing the book—I had started by journaling about the challenges and successes of learning to partner with my speech therapy dogs a few years back and wondered if other SLPs could benefit from my experiences.
Since the book edits were finalized a year ago, I’ve continued to have what I call “magical moments”; those times when a therapy dog’s presence made the difference between a “meh” session and an “aha!” moment for a child.
While I realize it isn’t truly magic—a speech therapy dog’s novelty, affiliative nature, and regulating presence can explain the increased effort and success children experience—it’s hard not to think of it that way.
So with generous permission from my wonderfully supportive client families, here’s three extra vignettes about animal-assisted speech therapy for your enjoyment and inspiration:
Sharlet and Delta in an animal-assisted speech therapy session with Remy who is featured below in story #3.
#1 The “Booty Sound” breakthrough
First grader Braxton had struggled for two years with the motor-planning, attention to task, and self-monitoring needed to produce consonants at the end of words. Easily frustrated and plagued by difficulty persisting, I often stressed about what activities I could include to make the biggest impact in his sessions.
It felt like I’d tried everything with inconsistent success. I’d drawn a silly cartoon Dachshund and we’d cut it into 3 pieces to represent the first, middle, and last sound and tried pairing that with both mouth pictures and magnetic letters he was familiar with. Still, he continued to plow ahead leaving off final consonants more often than not.
So one Monday morning, watching Delta to make sure she remained comfortable, we started talking about the “tail sound” (final consonant), running our hand smoothly down her back to her hips as we slowly spoke the word before exaggerating the last sound.
Out of nowhere, Braxton insisted on calling it “the booty sound”, giggling at his own joke and focusing on the activity more intensely than I had ever seen.
And while he usually gets bored easily with activities, this one held him in delighted rapture.
Now, “Don’t forget the booty sound!” is a quick prompt I can give to remind him to say all the sounds in a word as we continue to target syllable structures.
I was lucky enough to get a bit on video. To see it, click here. The best part was when his mom sent me a video of him practicing “booty sounds” at home with his own dog.
He NEVER wants to practice at home!
#2 Calm and slow for a speech therapy dog win
Dakoda was typically impulsive and difficult to engage, but this day in early fall had been especially challenging.
He’d spent most of the session alternating between repeatedly grumbling “I don’t want to do my appointment today” and running off impulsively while shrieking and giggling.
The goal had been saying the /g-/ sound in words, a skill he had shown great promise for in just the previous session. Eventually, however, my hopes faded to just wanting a calm ending to the session so we could start fresh the next week.
I had been recording this session with the intent of capturing the “turn and tell” technique, capitalizing on a speech therapy dog’s presence to elicit extra repetitions of a targeted sound or word. The camera happened to still be rolling when Delta spontaneously approached and her inherently calming presence kicked in. Together Dakoda and I took some calming breaths while petting her sleek back.
Visibly more regulated, he was finally willing to try his /g/ sound.
Then, suddenly recognizing his previous shrieking had been uncomfortable for Delta, he turned unprompted and apologized sweetly. She rewarded his articulatory effort and perspective taking with a spontaneous kiss and his whole demeanor changed. We succeeded with a few correct productions and I called it quits while we were ahead.
To see Dakoda’s face light up in response to his accomplishments and Delta’s encouragement, click here.
No, it wasn’t the greatest session overall. But at least we built some good rapport in the last few minutes to build on in upcoming sessions. And I learned how powerful combining deep breaths with petting a speech therapy dog can be to help switch a child out of that dreaded fight/flight/freeze state.
#3 The preschool therapy dog trainer
Preschooler Remy struggled with severe motor planning, expressive language, and attention challenges…but he really loved Delta!
Typically getting more than two or three repetitions of a word or phrase before his attention switches to a new activity is difficult, but when he realized he had the power to control Delta’s actions with words he was suddenly able to sustain attention for more than 15 minutes.
I was able to grab my camera and capture a few minutes toward the end of this mutually enjoyable session. While Remy wanted to play on the bolster swing I was struggling to get Delta to stay a safe distance away.
Remy started copying my directions to her by imitating “go out” (targeting both two-word combinations and jaw and lip movement for the diphthong “ou”), generalizing the previously mastered consonant-vowel combination “ba[ck]” when she would start to creep in, and then rewarding her with “good job” (more lip rounding).
He also surprised me by spontaneously signing “listening,” which I was able to expand to the more accurate phrase…“not listening”.
Together we practiced over and over, not only helping to establish some new motor plans for these words, but also building a playful script we were able to build on in future sessions.
In all, this session included probably the biggest variety of spoken words (and some signs) that I had heard Remy attempt to date. And his excited wiggles and giggles meant it was just as meaningful for him as it was for me!
To see a clip of Remy “training” speech therapy dog Delta, click here.
(And if you follow on Instagram @Speech_Dogs, look for upcoming videos of this joyful sprite. His progress has been a joy to witness and a powerful reminder of how making speech targets meaningful can drive motivation and practice repetitions!)
And a bonus speech therapy dog story…
(Note: this post was drafted some months back—see Sky’s First Day and Six Months of Sky for more!)
While I’m currently only working with Delta as a speech therapy dog since Bodhi and the late Johnny Utah retired from work, young recruit Sky is showing great promise.
On socialization outings, her exuberant greetings and drive to interact with people often leave strangers smiling and sharing fond stories of their own companion dogs.
On one recent outing, a very large, very tatooed, and very serious looking middle-aged man asked to pet Sky. Even though she was a bit naughty and tried to jump all over him, she licked his hands and wiggled her butt so hard he started to chuckle.
As we parted ways he thanked me and said “That made my day.”
If Sky can make that big guy happy, I can only imagine the joy she’ll bring to our animal-assisted speech therapy clients in the future!
New speech therapy dog Sky enthusiastically learning the ropes of animal-assisted speech therapy!
If you’re feeling inspired to try animal-assisted speech therapy yourself to help motivate and calm even your more challenging clients, check out Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions Into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice or dive into a full course in Talk to the Paw: Foundations for Therapy Animal Inclusion in a Professional Setting!
May your days be filled with puppy wiggles and children’s giggles,
Sharlet
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