When a child can't see the world around him, how does he find motivation to venture into the unknown?
With the help of a therapy dog named Iris, one group of visually impaired children is learning to take those important first steps.
The 3-year-old standard collie visits preschoolers twice a month at Dos Rios Elementary School in west Phoenix, where the Foundation for Blind Children runs two classrooms.
All of the children are either visually impaired or completely blind, and typically have other issues since most vision loss is caused by premature birth, said Marc Ashton, executive director for the foundation.
"Because our students do not have vision, they never have that motivation to move," he said. "What Iris does is really motivates them to walk, crawl or climb. We're trying to get our children to move through space and overcome that fear of the unknown."
The program's 15 pupils are transported to Dos Rios from almost every school district in the West Valley, Ashton said.
Their levels of blindness can range from complete blackness and not having eyes to peripheral vision or similar to looking through waxed paper, he said.
The foundation's intensive two-year program focuses on providing therapy and teaching skills, such as reading Braille. The goal is to move the children into a regular classroom after preschool, Ashton said.
"We start teaching them how to learn by touching. They're very tactile, so everything is feeling and touching," he said.
Many of the children have been with the program since birth, and the foundation's oldest client is 102 years old, Ashton said.
"We get the phone call from a hospital saying Joe Smith was just born with vision issues, and we'll go to the family's home the next day and start interacting with them," he said.
Once a pupil has moved to a regular classroom, he will continue receiving support from the foundation.
One of a kind
The animal therapy program was started nine years ago by Kathy Shires, who is now a pet therapist for the foundation. She worked in the classroom from 1980 to 1986, and then left to do back office nursing for 10 years.
"It was during those years that I developed the animal therapy program for the foundation, because I knew the needs of the kids," Shires said.
It is the only school for visually impaired children in the United States with a pet therapy program designed just for children, she said.
Last year, the program almost had to be cut because of the government's budget reductions, but a donor stepped in and saved it, Ashton said.
Iris provides sensory integration for the pupils, which helps to calm them down, Shires said. The dog also takes the more mobile children on walks around the campus.
"As they start really trusting the dog, they'll start walking right next to her shoulder," Shires said. "That's how she gives them the cue to turn right or left."
Many times, the pupils' first words will be "dog" or "Iris," Ashton said.
"Last year we had a student and Iris was the only thing that motivated her to move," said Lexi Day, one of the program's teachers.
The girl's community then raised almost $15,000 so her family could get a therapy dog, Day said.
Five-year-old Isaiah Cosme also learned how to walk recently with the help of Iris.
"It's helped his language a lot, because he likes walking with her and he'll talk to her," said Katie Armstrong, one of the program's teachers. "Last year he didn't talk as much, but this year he doesn't stop."
Emily McCann can be reached by e-mail
at emccann@westvalleyview.com.
