Even the smallest children will want to communicate more when they have a pet to talk about. They want to talk to us about their pet and tell us what s/he did, where he sleeps, what she eats. They may even try to talk to their pet. As kids get older, they do talk to their pets. Many pets are trained to be therapy dogs (cats, bunnies, even horses!) who LISTEN to kids read to help improve their reading and communication skills! (Tests show reading levels improve when kids read to pets.) We can’t forget that talking to our kids about pets in general or especially about the family pet helps kids learn to communicate!

Picture by thatcutesite.com