Boy With Autism Reads For The First Time After Mom Brings Home An Unexpected Friend

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Boy With Autism Reads For The First Time After Mom Brings Home An Unexpected Friend

Dogs can change people's lives - literally! The story you're about to read is a perfect example of how man's best friend didn't just earn that title by chance.

When Gemma Cook bought her two Dalmatians home, she never expected that they'd change her son's life.

Cook's 8-year old son, Keaton has autism and sensory issues which has affected his ability to read. Even the sight of a book triggers a 'meltdown'. Keaton reads at a pre-school levels and past efforts to improve his abilities were to no avail.

"He gets stressed because he struggles to read and write. He's very behind his peers," Cook, 34, told Daily Mail.

A psychologist suggested that a service dog could help Keaton, however the wait list was too long. This is when the idea of animal therapy for autistic children came to Cook, and of course it only made sense that she'd use the family pets, Charlie and Dotty.

Charlie and Dotty

"I wanted to see if it could work with our dogs... I told him the the dogs loved to hear kids read. So he started reading and the dogs just came over and just sat next to him. They just sat there and listened to him," said Cook.

Lucky for Cook and Keaton, the therapy has been working and he has been reading more than he has ever done before and he's doing it out loud too!

"So when this happened it was just a really emotional moment. My husband and I were sat on the sofa and we couldn't believe what we were seeing.The dogs started off walking around the room, but then they sat down and started to listen to Keaton of completely their own accord." explains the proud mom.

Cook filmed her son reading and with his four-legged best friends and the video is now going viral. Watch the precious moment for yourself in the video below.

Blair isn't a bestselling author, but she has a knack for beautiful prose. When she isn't writing for Shared, she enjoys listening to podcasts.