T.E.A.L.A.: The educational animal link advantage

Schools are changing to accommodate twenty-first century families with more attention on the development of social and emotional learning for students entering elementary school. This project provides a manual that is suitable for the integration of animals into a classroom with a purpose for social emotional learning. By using therapy dogs in schools, the animal would serve a dual purpose of working with students who require support, as well as teaching social emotional learning, focusing on empathy. The manual is influenced by current social emotional learning programs and the benefits of animal assisted for atypical learners with autism. The lesson plans in the manual include activities designed to teach different emotions using stories of animals that would help students make connections to the emotions of the animal and others and eventually to recognize emotions in one self.