Yupee – it is holiday time.

Finally a chance to put down those books and vegetate.

This week’s Neurotechnology Tip encourages you to relax and unwind over the holidays, BUT don’t switch off completely. Too long a holiday, will make it a lot harder to hit the road running, next year.

One way to keep your brain marginally switched on, might be to educate your dog.

Dog school creates fewer dunces

Knowing that readers are ultimately leaders, an NGO working towards helping inner city kids improve their ability to read, embarked on their annual summer reading programme.

The focus of the programme is to get the kids to read, out loud, to an adult for 30 minutes a week.

But, thanks to a team of researchers from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, the reading programme ditched some of the humans and signed up a couple of hairy hounds.

A dog does it better

The participants reading abilities and general attitude towards reading was assessed at the start of the holidays, and again at the end.

Believe it or not, the kids reading to humans actually got worse.

Oops…..

One of the problems was that the kids DISAPPEARED. Let’s be honest, reading to Aunty Betty is probably not as cool, as hanging with your friends.

But, the kids reading to a dog – IMPROVED.

They read better and they liked doing it too. In fact, not one of the children assigned to read to a dog, dropped out of the study.

Practise, practise, practise

What this study highlights is…. USE IT or LOSE IT.

A dog does not have magical powers, but they made reading a little more cool to do. And doing it, is what counts.

So, resist the temptation to SWITCH OFF completely, for the next few weeks – your brain capabilities are likely to shrink, because you’re not using it.

Find something COOL to learn and then LEARN IT.

Hope you have a good holiday. Learn lots !

 Benefits of Reading assistance dogs – white paper on Tufts University website. 

 

To wire up your brain a little each week ………………..

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Did you learn something new or do you have a different perspective ? I’d love to hear from you so post me a comment below