Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Exploring the Health Benefits of Pets

Hillary Hamann

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/health/06pets.html?_r=1

This article, “Exploring the Health Benefits of Pets” tells the reader that animals make a large impact on the health of many humans. It states that animals have a positive effect on the well being of children. For example, some children with leukemia that start to become depressed have dogs come and visit them. There has been a significant change in emotions among many cancer patients once these dogs have played with them and given them affection. The animal can be a companion to a sick or disabled child, or even just a pet for a sick of disabled child. Either way, the animal seems to be good therapy for human health and a positive addition in healing people’s mental state.

People that have animals with them, affects them dramatically. Autistic children function better by having fewer tantrums in public when their pets are present. Like a boy in the article, he was diagnosed with autism and because of the pet therapy; he is taking less medication to control his problematic behavior. This example shows, that in other disabled children, dogs can help their health. These results are making scientists in England and the U.S. study and get a better understanding of the interaction between humans and animals. These studies will show why some children feel better after relating to animals than other children. These animals “brighten them up” and are truly making a difference in humanity.

I thought this was a great article. It was articulate, interesting, and easy to understand. The writer was clear with the situation at hand, and did not fail to explain anything. The only thing I would say to make it better is to give more examples of other animals, besides dogs. I think it would have been more interesting if more animals were included in the testing and examples given to the reader. Overall it was well written and enjoyable to read.

10 comments:

  1. I felt that Hillary did a great job presenting the article that she read, she did not leave any parts out. In her writing I enjoyed how enthusiastic she was about the way pets helped children. I could tell that she really liked the article that she was reading. She also was able to explain thoroughly in her writing how dogs helped autistic children.
    She could have went into more detail about other disabilities that dogs have helped with. Another topic that she could have mentioned was whether these helping dog were trained or just regular dogs.
    I learned that dogs can help in therapy so much that children don’t need to take as many medications anymore.

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  2. Hillary did a very good job at presenting this article, she was able to easily explain her points from the article. Also she picked an article which was very enjoyable to hear about in my opinion, I've always found this topic peculiar. Lastly she gave many examples of how dogs have helped ill and how they tend to children who are autistic or the elderly. Although she was very clear on her information i wish she could have or the article could have provided her with more examples on which sickness' these animals or dogs can help cure. And one other thing i wish could have been mentioned is which animals can be trained to "cure" the ill and why. I've learned the benefit of having trained animals to help kids and how much your mood or happiness can effect a sickness.

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  3. Hillary article "Exploring the Health Benefits of Pets" sounds like a very interesting topic. I think Hillary did a good job on choosing this article. Instead of having to do with something that is killing a human it has to do with the happiness sick or ill people get from animals. I also think Hillary was smart to include that there have been studies done and interviews with children. Finally, Hillary gave a great explanation telling the reader the specifics about how the animals help. One idea Hillary could have taken further was the interviews with certain kids about how they feel without their animals. Also, do the animals enjoy the humans are the happy? I would like to find more about was illness' this cure could be used for besides the ones she put in the article.

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  4. I think Hillary did a good job writing this article. It summarized the article well and presented the point. She also presented her article in class well. She did not stutter or try to use words, like um or like. Her presentation was to the point and very detailed. Her article was very literate, as it didn’t use words I didn’t understand, and she used words to describe things, making it even easier to understand.
    One thing I would suggest to Hillary is to make sure that she is not repeating the same sentences using different words, because I noticed this. To make the article even better, I suggest describing what makes the people feel better; what actions the dog takes to improve their quality of life.
    I learned from this review that people with cancer had a change in emotion after being introduced to dogs who interacted with them and provided comfort. I think that this is very interesting, and should happen around the world for people who suffer from cancer as it makes them feel better.

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  5. I read Hillary’s article titled, “Exploring the Health Benefit of Pets.” This article was about how dogs changed cancer patients to a positive mood after visiting them at hospitals or in their homes. It was very interesting and a great article. Hillary presented this article very well in class. She was very direct and provided a very detailed summary of the article. Hillary wrote the article very well, and it was very literate. I understood it perfectly and it was fun and easy to read. Hillary provided an opinion of the article where she said that they should have written about other animals, and this was what I was thinking. I thought that her opinion on the article was honest and thoughtful.
    One thing I would suggest to make the article better is to add a bit more detail on what the dogs did to make the people feel so nice and happy. I would also recommend on reading the review over when finished, because some things were stated twice in different ways.
    I learned from this article that cancer patients had an evident change in emotion after being visited by dogs who provided companionship and support. The article was short and to the point, and I enjoyed it.

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  6. Hillary,
    Good job with your article! You did three things that were especially good in your current events. The first is that you used very illustrative writing in your summary. This is good to explain your article in detail. Another great thing you did was that you presented your article very well in class. You did not stumble upon words and you gave a great overall presentation. A third thing you did very well was use simple vocabulary. You used words that are easy to understand, yet they are still descriptive. There are also some things that you could improve on. One is that you could go in greater detail for your article with some more specific examples about your topic. Another small thing that you need to do is indent in front of each new paragraph, it’s nothing bid though. You did a good job overall and I really learned a lot about how humans react to animal companions. Especially, I learned how this affects sick children. GREAT JOB!
    xoxo,
    Caroline

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  7. One thing that Hillary did well in her review was she picked a great article, that was interesting and relatable. She also did a great job presenting the article, and explained her points very clearly. Third, she gave many examples to prove that her article definitely made a difference in humanity.

    One thing that Hillary could have done to improve her review was she could have went into more detail about the disabilities that the dogs helped with. Also, I wish she could have mentioned was what other animals could be trained to help the ill.

    I learned from this review that animals are a huge benefit in helping kids and that your mood and how happy you are can reflect on your disease or sickness.

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  8. I thought that the article was very captivating in a way that it really captures the readers attention. She also did a good job mentioning the positives of affection and emotional content that these animals give to children in need such as kids that have been diagnosed with cancer. It is also great to know that parents have less tantrums to deal with when they have an animal around the house. Although i really liked the article, I think she could have put in more detail about how this could possibly work, and how they can distinguish more detail about the similarities between pets and humans to make it more understanding. I learned from this review that animals can be huge benefits to your children around the house whenever you need them.

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  9. I think that hillary did an excellent job summarizing this article. She described everything she was talking about, so i wasn't confused. Another thing that was good about this review was that Hillary chooses a good topic that caught the readers attention. I could really relate to the article and review because I have a pet of my own. SHe also gave many examples of how who could benefit from animal. To Improve this article HIllary could have put in more detail about how it works. Also she could have given more detail about how the animals where trained to work with kids in the hospital. I leaned that having a pet in you life can really make you more happy and less stressful

    - Jackie Faselt/ core chem even

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  10. Very informative and helpful. I was searching for this information but there are very limited resources. Thank you for providing this information
    Illustration essay Topics

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