For a learner to succeed in studies, a lot of concentration, commitment, sacrifice, and collaboration are needed. Well, this can be quite tough! To assist with the situation, scientists and psychologists have been doing studies with the intention of helping students to reduce stress and remain positive especially during the assignment and exam times.
One of the methods found to be useful in helping strugglers reduce or clear stress completely is a dog psychotherapy. Here is a closer look at the pooches to demonstrate their positive effects on learners’ academic results. Â
A Closer Look at Therapy Dogs
Following the infamous 2018 school shootings in Florida, one of the methods that was employed to comfort and help students remain positive when returning to school was therapy dogs. As it was reported by the Humane Society of Broward County: “Today, therapy dogs welcomed learners back to schoolâ€. Therefore, what exactly is this treatment?
Treatment pooches are dogs that are specially coached to provide affection, love, and comfort to people in locations such as schools. They are also part of animal-assisted nursing to help improve people’s social, emotional functioning. Research further suggests that dogs can also be used to reduce anxiety and symptoms of depression. Here are the three main effects of the treatment on scholar’s academic results.
Effect #1: Reduced Stress
When examination time draws near, many students find it difficult to stay on course because of stress. They have a lot of work to revise, as a result it is easy to experience burnout. When this is coupled with thoughts of the tests around the corner, it becomes easy to lose track of the best method for achieving better grades.
Nursing pooches are used as part of the theory of social facilitation to help students reduce stress and remain on course towards completing their studies. Even if the learner only has a few days to sit an exam, therapy dogs help to reduce anxiety, reduce blood pressure, and provide relaxing effect so that the student can plan time well.
With little or no stress, apprentices go into the assessment room confidently and achieve the best grades. By cutting stress and staying positive, the treatment helps students to see exams as part of the learning process as opposed to a point meant to depict them as failures. The result will be an impressive performance.
Effect #2: Better Exam Scores
During the exam period, scholars experience intense levels of anxiety. This could easily compromise their performance. Note that this does not come from the fact that they have not prepared well, but fear of failure. At this point, scholars need a reliable method to pull down stress and treatment pooches come in handy.
By cuddling and talking to the pooches, learners are able to cut down stress and get higher scores for their exams. In one of the studies on the effects of treatment pooches, participants scored 5.5 points higher on their final exams compared to those who did not.
NOTE: While the treatment has shown great potential in helping learners improve their grades, the remedy might not be very helpful when the assignment deadlines are very tight. For example, what do you do when you have an assignment and the deadline is tomorrow or just a few hours away? The best remedy is seeking help from online essay writing academic platforms. You simply provide the requirements for your assignment and it is completed by a top scholar who guarantees the best results. This is also delivered in record time. Awesome!
Effect #3: Improved Communication Skills
Often, students are reluctant to come to school, college or university. Countless homework assignments make these buildings less welcoming, right? But what if some animals were waiting for you there? Having a dog or any other animal at college not only motivates students to come back, but also induces collective activities.
Playing with animals removes the barriers between strangers. One simply cannot help but share sincere emotions as they play with the dogs. Such activities help students to relax and feel themselves at home. Surprisingly, emotional bond with the animals can be one of the strongest study motivators as the experience of St. Benedict Catholic School has shown.
Conclusion
Therapy dogs are some of the leading practices for assisting learners to get better grades in their assessments. The treatments are designed to help learners keep calm and stay positive about the forthcoming exam so that they can get better results. This is the main reason why more schools are encouraging the use of pooches during the assignments and exam times.
Note that this treatment cannot be used alone to drive good performance at college or university! Learners have to work hard and use dog therapy as a supporting means of motivation during the assignment and assessment times.
The treatment dogs also have more for learners. If a learner is not willing to purchase a pooch, he/she could consider becoming a dog walker. Well, this could even be a money-making venture as demand for therapy pooches increases.
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