Dog therapy time is back. After many long months of isolation at home, children, deprived of their friends, their routines and outdoor activities, sometimes have reintegration problems and, especially in the most fragile contexts, they struggle in the relationship with their classmates and teachers. But having a puppy at school can go a long way in overcoming their insecurities and fears.
This is why the national dog therapy project «Just a Paw» in schools, which brings animals to meet the children and young people of preschools, in primary and secondary schools. The initiative, organized and promoted by For a Smile Onlus, has already started during the last school year in some schools in Piedmont, Lombardy and Sardinia, and today it is starting again to welcome applications from many schools.
“An innovative experiment, especially useful in this confused and anxious climate in which we all live, large and small. We started in some comprehensive institutes in Lombardy, Piedmont and Sardinia, totally donating the service », explained Ludovica Vanni, president of For a Smile Onlus. «In the last two years we have no longer been able to enter hospitals with our operators and their dogs, but it would have been a shame to give up, because we have seen that dog therapy can be very useful in critical situations. It helps to calm the soul, as well as offering moments of leisure and emotional release, and to allow some movement “.
The meetings, built according to the needs of the group, are conducted by Iaa certified operators (Assisted Interventions with Animals – Dog Therapy), accompanied by four-legged friends educated precisely for activities with children. Dog therapy in the classroom, through games and socialization proposals, works on emotional-affective mechanisms with the goal of lowering the level of stress associated with insertion and post isolation, increase children’s self-confidence, develop verbal and non-verbal language, function as an emotional release valve and improve emotional aspects and team spirit.
This year also begins the experimentation of dog therapy in three languages, English, French and German, who had already left at the European kindergarten in Turin, in via Lodovica 2. “Ours is a European school, there are mother tongue children and others who come from different parts of the world and who find themselves having to learn another language” , explains the teacher Valeria Buonomo. «Dog therapy puts children on the same level of learning and helps them integrate more easily. An activity like this teaches children care and respect through experience. With the dog, relational channels of respect and emotional involvement of great teaching are opened ».
To ensure that dog therapy can continue to be offered free of charge in schools by For a Smile onlus, the solidarity sms campaign has started: until 19 December, 2 euros can be donated by sending a text message to 45596 from Wind Tre, Tim, Vodafone, Illiad, Poste Mobile, Coop Voce and Tiscali mobile phones, or 5/10 euros for each call to 45596 from a fixed network Tim, Vodafone , Wind Tre, Fastweb, and Tiscali. € 5 calling from a fixed network Twt, Convergenze and Poste Mobile.
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