Pet Partners, Elanco Encourage Reading to Pets During Distance Learning with New We Are All Ears Initiative
As many parents continue to work from home this fall, they are also juggling the task of helping their children learn virtually. Pet Partners, the nation’s leading organization registering therapy animals for animal-assisted interventions, along with one of the world’s leading animal health companies, Elanco, know that one member of the family can help ease this burden: the pet.
Through a new initiative, We Are All Ears, a Worldwide Read with Pets Project, Pet Partners and Elanco are encouraging families and children to read to their pets, as reading to an animal can significantly impact student reading rates.
“Reading to pets is an amazing way to get children excited about reading and engaged with the content,” said C. Annie Peters, President and CEO of Pet Partners. “Children who are learning to read are often hesitant about their reading abilities. Many kids feel more at ease reading to pets, who are simply there to listen – not to judge how well they are reading.”
This new initiative is designed to bring the power of the human-animal bond to youth literacy. With most Pet Partners’ registered volunteer therapy animal teams across the country unable to conduct their regular therapy animal visits due to Covid-related restrictions, the organization is leading this already-proven animal-assisted activity, which is based on their Read With Me initiative involving children reading to therapy animals.
“As many of us at Elanco are working from home while stepping in to help teach our children, we saw the incredible opportunity for the Elanco Foundation to support Pet Partners’ We Are All Ears Initiative and the valuable role pets can play in virtual learning,” said Julie Lawless, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Administration at Elanco and Pet Partners Board Chair. “It’s also an opportunity for us to bring the program to a larger audience of parents during National Book Month, when we’ll host Elanco’s Read to Your Pet Day on Oct. 5, encouraging everyone – including our employees and customers – to read with their children to their pets.”
When a family takes the pledge to read at home to their pets, they can determine a reading goal that is right for them, whether it is to read a certain number of books, pages, chapters or minutes. From there, families can also access some great resources to support families as they participate in We Are All Ears including a reading log, bookmark templates, a special BINGO card and a pet bandana, all to help encourage regular reading. A Certificate of Completion is also available for parents to present to their child and pets upon reaching their goals. There is also an official We Are All Ears T-shirt for sale, with proceeds benefiting Pet Partners.
Learn more about this initiative in a recent episode of Elanco’s Rediscovering the Power of Healthy Animals podcast titled, “We Are All Ears: The Benefits of Reading to Pets.”