Tom recently made an appearance at the TALK Institute in Newtown Square for one of his biweekly visits. TALK, formerly called the Magnolia School, is an educational facility for children who have speech disorders or are on the spectrum.
TALK is run by a team of researchers, therapists, and teachers who strive to create an interpersonal approach that views autism as a movement disorder that affects social interaction, praxis, and language.
Courtney, a teacher at TALK, is happy for the visits. She said:
The children at TALK Institute are greeted bi-weekly with two furry faces. Dog therapy is not only exciting for the children, it is rewarding. The children are learning to complete tasks such as approaching a dog calmly, petting, brushing and even giving the dog a treat! For many of the children these are completely novel tasks, for they do not have this particular pet at home.
The reward comes from the success of each task; which all kids have shown some success over these varied tasks! This allows the kids to not only feel more comfortable around dogs, but it gives a boost of self confidence knowing they completed something new.
In the gallery below, you can see our dogs hanging out with the students. We look forward to our visits and are thankful to TALK for having us!
