Literacy acquisition is imperative to successful academic progress and to successful participation in our society. Students with identified learning disabilities are often among those who struggle to acquire literacy skills. The following dissertation shares the results of a reading intervention study in which nine students with identified…

Many schools in the United States use the IQ-achievement discrepancy method to identify children with learning disabilities (a significant split between their intelligence and their achievement skills). Unfortunately struggling students who are not identified by this method remain in the regular education setting with no additional supports and…

While animal assisted therapy (AAT) has been a successful part of treatment plans within the medical field for several decades, AAT has not been quantitatively researched as a viable instructional tool that can be used in conjunction with other reading intervention strategies. With over one-third of elementary school aged children experiencing…