Margaret and Murphy READ to Children
This story was written for my Art of the Profile class at the Columbia Journalism School on December 14, 2016.
At New York Public Library branch East 67th street kids are rolling around floors more often than reaching for books in the second floor’s children section. The zoo-like vibe halts when the elevator doors open to an unusual guest: Murphy Blossom, a nine-year-old white maltipoo, accompanied by her owner, Margaret Sheehan. For a fleeting moment, the floor goes silent. Then, chattering ensues and the children attempt to gather around the dog.
The librarian leads Sheehan to a room with glass windows, a bookshelf, tiny chairs, and colored mats. Sheehan invites a little boy to sit on a mat, then asks if he would like Murphy to sit in his lap. The boy, in a large orange sweater, smiles slowly as Murphy crawls into his lap. They are nearly the same size.
Sheehan sits down next to them; she and the boy begin to read a book of his choosing together. Quickly, though, she hands him the reins and he continues reading aloud about Al and Sal.
“Okay, tell me which one is the donkey,” Sheehan says. The little boy murmurs. “Al is the donkey? Good.”
Sheehan joined New York Therapy Animals four years ago, then became involved with Reading Educated Assisted Dogs (READ) in 2014. READ aims to improve children’s literary skills by using registered therapy teams as “literary mentors.” Each team includes a therapy handler and a therapy dog. According to Nancy George-Michalson, executive director of the program, training takes place in two parts involving a workshop for handlers and their dogs and an additional session to educate handlers about policies and procedures such as HIPPA laws. Every two years, each team is reassessed.
“We want handlers who are really interested in sharing their time as a volunteer,” George-Michalson says. “We educate and evaluate the handler. It’s a time and financial commitment and people are going to be counting on them when they need to be there.”
Teams have improved literacy rates of children by an average of 10 points via data released by Intermountain Therapy Animals. This is due to exposure-based therapy, which happens during a one-on-one session with a team and a child.
“It’s usually children, kindergarten to third grade, when children are learning to read,” George-Michalson. “We also have programs in middle school for people who are struggling to read.”
Sheehan continues her conversation.
“You’re in kindergarten?” she asks. “Are you the smartest boy in the class? I think you are, because you’re such a good reader!”
The book finishes, Sheehan asks the boy if Murphy did a good job of listening. The boy eagerly nods.
“Would you like to give her a treat?” Sheehan asks.
Murphy patiently climbs out of the boy’s lap, waits for him to stand, then begins to wag her tail. Murphy retains her composure after eating the treat.
“Would you like to see Murphy dance?” Sheehan asks.
She spins on her hind legs for a second, inspiring a grin on the boy’s face. He then picks up his bag of books and leaves the room.
“The children all have Ziploc bags,” Sheehan says. “You know what level they’re at throughout the New York school system. The book baggy is provided by the school. My favorite book…it’s Gerald and Piggy by Mo Willems. It is so easily interactive, the children laugh and the words are big.”
Beyond volunteering at the library, Sheehan and Murphy spend their time at public schools in Harlem. Most of the children they work with are on individualized education plans and may have ADHD, hyperactivity, or dyslexia. Some are slow readers or do not primarily use English at home. As a former second grade teacher for the Queens Public Schools, Sheehan enjoys working with children.
While Sheehan was walking on the Upper East Side, she came across a sign advertising training classes for therapy dog teams. She signed up for an intensive, seven-week training.
“They train both ends of the leash,” Sheehan says laughing. “but the dogs have the temperament so they don’t need as much training as we do.”
As a team, she and Murphy volunteered to visit nursing homes and hospices. Now, they focus on READ at the library and at public schools in Harlem. Once a month, they go visit a school for children with autism.
“Murphy has never barked so she’s pretty ideal for this,” Sheehan says. “She doesn’t scare anybody.”
Sheehan says that Murphy will go to any person’s lap, despite not being taught to.
“I had her for about six months,” Sheehan says. “I went into Central Park. I was sitting on a bench with her next to me and holding the leash. I was just reading and I looked up and she climb into a man’s lap. I looked over and he’s reading and just keeps petting her. I never said a word to her.”
Sheehan says that there is a school downtown for teenage children who are immigrants. She and Murphy were visiting three boys from various places in South America. Murphy climbed into one of the boys’ lap. According to Sheehan, it was the first time all day the boy did not want to kill himself. At 16, he previously had four attempts.
“Sometimes, you’ll get a child that’s having a bad day,” Sheehan says.
But Sheehan most favorite moment was an encounter with a girl with severe dyslexia.
“She didn’t know the word bucket and I said, ‘what is it?’ and she said, ‘pail,’” and I said, ‘look at the word, it spells out bucket, can you say bucket?’” Sheehan recalls. The girl turned the page and the word escaped. Sheehan told the girl that she knew that word, and the girl responded that she did not have a brain. Sheehan told her that she just used it.
George-Michalson says that one technique that helpers use in isolating a word is “pawphonics.” This is when the therapy dog will use its paw to point to a word, allowing the child to focus on it.
“They’re reading to a nonjudgmental animal,” George-Michalson says. “A dog does not care if the child mispronounces a word.”
Sheehan directs the little boy to tell Murphy what a word means rather than explain it to her. George-Michalson states that the child actually becomes the tutor, influencing word comprehension to both members of the team.
“I think it’s wonderful because I see that the kids really relax more,” Kovacs said.
Sheehan’s next two readers are twin girls with pigtails in purple tutus. Murphy climbs into one of the girls’ lap and she wraps her arms around the dog’s white fur. Sheehan initiates the reading session once more, sitting on the mat between them with a new story.
