By Veronica Beltran

Kids with autism read to cats

Program for kids with learning disabilities spurred on by local mom, and son with autism

Aug 1, 2019 | 1:03 PM

PRINCE GEORGE–A local Prince George woman and her son were the initiators behind a program aimed at helping kids with autism and other learning disabilities improve their reading skills.

Birgit Zorzi and her son Elliott have been coming to the Humane Society for almost two years, however it was only recently that Zorzi decided to bring a book along with her, for her son to attempt to read in a calm environment. She says the idea came from her facebook where she bumped into an article of a shelter letting students read to the animals.

Elliott was diagnosed with autism at 33-months-old and is dyslexic, something his mom says has affected his ability to read. “I have a hard time getting him to read for more than five minutes,” she said to us in an on camera interview. However, she saw a difference right after he read to the cats, ” I saw a difference immediately, Elliott joyfully read instead of painfully reading.” During his first time reading to the cats, he read for 20 minutes straight, something Zorzi says he never would have done outside of the shelter.

According to Executive Director of the PG Humane Society, Melissa Garner, the shelter is excited to be able to offer this to the public. However, she does mention that with the new program, more staff will be needed to come in at earlier than normal times; leading to the need of more donations, in order to continue to offer the program.

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As for Elliott, he says it is relaxing, “it’s hard to tell what my favourite part is, but usually my favourite part is learning cool stuff from my book,” he says. According to the 9-year-old the cats like to be read, science related books–a topic he enjoys very much, even saying he wants to be one of the “colonists who goes to mars.”

The program will be offered on Thursday’s starting at 10 am and running until 11 am, before the shelter opens up to the regular public.