Group items tagged

Physical

Walking a dog or running in the yard and throwing a ball are great ways to exercise the dog as well as for children to get away from sedentary indoor activities and move around. Small motor skills can be encouraged by allowing children to scoop food and pour water into dishes, and by helping to groom them

Social

When a student can be so engaged and motivated, this type of learning tool becomes an important part of the curriculum. Clegg (1991) pointed out the most important predictor of learning is the instructional context and not necessarily the actual game, but the collaborative and cooperative learning built into the overall experience, offering an engaging environment for information assimilation.

Games create competitive and collaborative situations making learning fun and engaging; meeting the many needs of the students (Weiss & Loebbeck, 2008). During the early grades, teachers spend up to eight hours with their students each day; they could utilize the interactive and social aspects in games in order to realize additional learning in the classroom and use it to support other subjects (Klopfer, Osterweil, & Salen, 2009).

In the past 20 years there has been an expansion of the diversity of service animals being utilized by persons with disabilities, with some confusion as to what truly is a “service animal”.  Effective March 15, 2011, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations define a service animal as “a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability” (USDJ, 2011).