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Ginger Beebe visits Beech Grove Therapy Center
By John Griffith
jgriffith@paragoulddailypress.com
Published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 12:11 PM CDT
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Arkansas’ First Lady Ginger Beebe reads a story written by Miguel Garcia, 12, while Martin Ray looks on. Beebe met
Ray, Garcia and other students during a tour and demonstration Monday of the Henry Wrinkles Foundation’s animal-assisted learning program at Beech Grove.
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Ginger Beebe meets
Henry |
Animal-assisted learning, therapy sees early success
BEECH GROVE -- Ginger Beebe, Arkansas’
first lady, toured a facility Monday where a
nonprofit is using animals to connect
emotionally with special needs children, a
program that foundation members said has
garnered interest from educators at Yale
University and the University of Mississippi.
Foundation member Robin Jurczyk said 14
students from Oak Grove elementary and middle
schools visit the 200-acre farm where they
interact with a menagerie of rescue animals
and shelter pets from pigs, a peacock and a
gangly-legged goat to scores of dogs.
Fifty-two horses, bred, raised and trained at
the farm provide a wealth of confidence
boosting and skill-building opportunities.
“We eventually want to house children here,”
said foundation member Susan Boyd, who
completed the animal-assisted learning
facility on her farm in late spring 2009. Boyd’s
farm is home to Henry Wrinkles, the foundation’s
legitimate canine president. “Eventually, we’re
wanting to run it year-round. That’s our
long-term goal.”
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Arkansas' First Lady,
Ginger Beebe, visits with students at the
Henry Wrinkles Foundation's Aminal Assisted
Learning Program. |
Animal Therapy
In the riding arena, children learn to control
the horse by making it step backwards and turn
left and right. Handlers assist children in
making the horse trot. The lessons build
confidence and self-esteem and connect with
the children emotionally, Sheila Coleman,
director of the Spirit Ridge Therapeutic
Riding Center, whose staff oversee the equine
therapy.
“I like this program because it’s fun and
they let you do a lot of stuff with horses,”
said Miguel Garcia, 12.
Inside the classroom, Wrinkles, dressed in a
shirt and tie and glossy shorts, sits at a rustic
wood table with Jacob Stevenson, 12; Tenoy Woodard,
9; and Garcia and Martin Ray, 9.
“In this particular segment we focus on
communication enhancement,” Jurczyk said. “In
this portion, we use shelter pets or rescued animals
to provide hands-on experiences to stimulate
reading, writing, speaking and comprehension skills.”
Jurczyk said a book, ghost-written by Wrinkles and
illustrated with pictures of the farm’s animals as
central characters, is typically read aloud to
children. Boyd read Monday from Wrinkles’ latest
book about the importance of recycling and
responsible environmental stewardship.
“After we read the story, the children make up
their own version or retell the original story,
using the photos as story prompts,” Jurczyk said.
“Some of the children draw their stories, some
dictate them; others write songs or write original
stories.
“We found that a lot of the kids have gotten
confidence. Some of the children came and oddly they
may have been apprehensive about some of the small
animals, and by seeing them in a safe environment
they are feeling a lot more comfortable, they’re
talking to them, they’re requesting to go visit
them more.”
Once a week on Fridays, the foundation chauffeurs
Wrinkles to Oak Grove Elementary and applies
animal-assisted learning to a broader audience. Boyd
said Wrinkles, who has been filling his role for
five years, is special because he demonstrates an
ability to pick up on a child’s distress and then
he will respond to it. She said teachers have been
amazed at Wrinkles’ ability to elicit emotional
responses from students.
“The first day we went into a junior high
classroom last year, a little girl ran up, threw her
arms around Henry and started talking,” Jurczyk
said. “The teacher looked kind of shocked. They
hadn’t ever heard her speak. She’d been there
almost a month.”
Beebe
Beebe said this was the first program of its kind
anywhere that she was aware of.
“It’s what the children gain from this. That’s what’s important. That’s what Susan (Boyd) and the others are doing here,” Beebe said.
“I think through their storytelling and what they were writing in their books, whether it was what
they were writing or what they were drawing, brought out something in them that’s maybe hard for them to express. Maybe it’s feelings that they are
having a hard time dealing with that I think the animals bring it out. They can write about it and they can talk about it,” she said.
Future plans
“We’ve been really pleased,” Jurczyk said. “The children are enjoying it. We’re looking at ways to
expand it. We’re really hoping the word will get out where other schools across the state will want
to incorporate something similar in their school.”
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| Henry
receives official visit. |
Henry
sits quietly while a students reads. |
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