News Clip

I wanted to find another good video clip that discussed AAT and its importance :) I feel like I am posting too many articles, so I'm trying to spice things up a bit...Anyway, this is what I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbBguMj7bEg

It discusses different cases of animals working with children with disabilities to encourage independence. I found it extremely interesting and inspirational :) I really want to be part of an AAT program so that way I can include it within my classroom from time to time.

I also found this website when researching animal assisted therapy and its use in a classroom:

http://www.chimoproject.ca/s_5.asp

The site lists ways that animals are beneficial in a classroom environment. There were two things that stuck out to me on this site. A child that has disruptive tendencies can be seated to a calming classroom pet to help distract the child and soothe their behaviors with its calming personality (i.e. a rabbit, fish, etc.). The other thing that caught my interest was the fact that an animal can encourage children to be more social. A teacher can assign a shy or withdrawn child to be the animal's "guardian" so that other children will socialize with the particular child about the classroom pet :) These are some very great ideas to use in the classroom with class pets! Sometimes children with disabilities can be withdrawn and shy when interacting with their peers-so I find these methods to be very beneficial in creating a more cohesive classroom environment...