Rick,
Thank You for sharing this article with us. I so strongly believe in the dog and child connection. My cousin has an autistic daughter, her first words were at 8 years old. She said dog and ball as she played with one of my dogs Cody - a red golden. I never saw her laugh until that day when she was throwing the ball and Cody was catching it and bringing it back to her. My Cousin and I both cried, it was a very special day. Cody did more in that one day than all the schooling, doctors, and teachers put together had done for her. That was the day that I decided to train Cody as a therapy dog, unfortunately, after all that training was completed, we found that Cody had cancer. After that they came several times a week to play with Cody and each time she started communicating a little better.
Another story, there really should be more opportunities for children with disabilities to have a friend that is non judgemental. Within both children and adults that have disabilites, a dog helps give them independence, confidence, and a sense of being.
Riley is one lucky boy.