Autism and Pet Therapy

Dogs as service animals/ support dogs

Help with anxiety that they may feel in certain environment
Dogs reduce anxiety so instead of focusing on bright lights and buzzing sounds
Dogs prevents kids from running away

In study after study, animal-assisted therapy has proven to be a valid tool in helping children
with autism and other developmental disabilities build a new sense of self-confidence. Animal-
assisted therapy has been shown to counteract isolation and facilitate socialization.

Despite its widespread use, empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of animal-assisted
therapy is largely lacking

Questions
What is it about that makes them good companions to people on the spectrum?
Are there any similarities/differences between autistic individuals and dogs?
What are sort of skills do these dogs need to have?
Are there specific dog breeds that is autism-friendly?
Why is play with the dog fun, but not with humans?
What are the effects of animal-assisted therapy on autism?
o The purpose of this research project was to see if the present of a dog could serve as a
motivator to work on research skills such as playing with others, being aware of others
needs and initiating and maintaining communication with another
o Social interaction was not the only skill that improved over the 15 weeks of interaction
o Able to maintain play with the dog
o Gaining independence
o Transfer what he learns from the dog to human play. He was not interested in a long
period
o Communication between zach and the dog is nonverbal, but communication with zach
and human is verbal which may be overwhelming to his senses and causes him to shut
down
o Shows eye contact to the dog
o Working fine motor skills. He hated cutting paper with scissor so introduced cutting dog
treats. He was motivated to cutting dog treats and used the scissor correctly. But after
he was given paper again and he was unmotivated
o Now able to easily transition to different activity when it involves a dog
o Since the animal assisted therapy, Zach’s behaviors has changed. He has changed in the
way he interacts with people including his brothers (he never interacted much with
them before). Now he has become more aware of their feelings and need
 o Decrease in tantrums
o The dog helped build a level of self-confidence that he didn’t have before. Giving him a
sense of belonging and purpose. This has opened up his communication with and
awareness of the world around him

He found an attachment in the dog. But why is he attached to the dog and not hums? Could it
be that animals can read human emotions?

How effective is pet therapy as a treatment for children on the spectrum

Anxiety
Depression
stress

Helps with communication, emotional regulation, building connection with dogs and others
(understand the needs of others), safe place/environment (comfort), confidence (self esteem),
learning to play, sensory overload

Thesis: Pet therapy

How many children have a pet in Canada

Is the therapy valid and can be generalized in the school system or modern society
What is the function of a therapy dog in a session?
How specifically does the dog affect social behaviors?
Does the dog decrease stress?
Who does it benefit?
Is the dog actually useful?
Is it more beneficial for those with low or high autism
Increased in social behavior around the dog, but can that be applied to humans?
What about the dog? Does this cause stress Though this treatment seems to have many
benefits for autism person what about the dog? Is the non-human’s rights protected? The
welfare of the animal in animal assisted therapy
Behavioral analysis
Does it work better for low functioning or high functioning
Three most popular animal-assisted treatment and their effectiveness
What is AAT?
What are the disadvantages of using animals in therapy
The potential benefits of interacting with animals for have been predominantly anecdotal.
What is the intervention supposed to do? (Green, 1996)
• What is the impact of the method on the individual's general quality of life?
Will the intervention detract from the overall educational and treatment program?
Have its effects been tested in controlled experiments using direct observation?
Can these methods be maintained in the long term with appropriately trained
personnel and other resources?

Can it be useful for children in a learning environment or school environment or educational

environment/ setting ?

Thesis: Because Autism is a disorder that could present itself so different, there has been many
alternatives intervention methods. One of these is pet therapy. Is there any real benefits of
involving animals in a treatment methods

There is no golden rule that works for everyone when it comes to autism. For this reason,
opinions and advice differs when it comes to treatment. Because children with ASD may have
very different symptoms, what work for one child may not work for another. This has led to the
appearance of many alternative treatment. One of such is animal-assisted therapy also known
as pet therapy. Though I have heard many positives about this option, I was interested in
whether or not there is empirical evidence to prove it’s effectiveness. This paper explores
whether or not animal-assisted therapy is viable and not only pseudoscience.
Despite its widespread use, empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of animal-assisted
therapy is largely lacking.
While there is no “cure” for autism, there are several effective interventions that can improve a
child’s functioning

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/animals-and-us/201411/does-animal-assisted-
therapy-really-work
Talk about the effectiveness of the treatment. Hey all these researches are showing it’s
effective. Here are the benefits, but wait. Here’s the problem. The first is that most of the
clinical trials on the effectiveness of animal assisted therapy are so methodologically flawed
that their conclusions cannot be trusted (so can we really trust their conclusions?). Therapies
involving horses are a good example. In a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Psychology,
investigators lead by Michael Anestis of the University of Southern Mississippi analyzed all of
the published clinical trials on equine assisted therapy. They found that in 12 of the 14 studies
the sample sizes were too small to produce reliable results, and 8 of the studies also lacked no-
treatment control groups. In only one of the trials were subjects randomly assigned to
treatment conditions, and none of them controlled for the effects of simply being exposed to a
new experience or for unconscious bias on the part of the researchers. Based on these
problems, Anestis' team recommended that that equine therapy be put on hold until well-
designed studies demonstrate its effectiveness.
They argued that investigators needed to carefully separate the feel-good temporary
recreational benefits of interacting with animals from the long-term clinical benefits of AAT.

Animal-Assisted Therapy Research Deficiencies

Among the most common flaws in AAT studies are:

-Lack of a non-treatment control group.

-Insufficient numbers of subjects.

-No controls for effects of novel experiences (e.g., swimming with dolphins).

-No written manual spelling out the treatment procedures (important for standardization and
replication).

-No use of “blind observations” to control for unconscious bias on the part of the researchers.

-Reliance on self-reports rather than objective measures.

-Lack of long-term follow-up studies.

-Putting a positive spin on negative results (e.g., “While interacting with the therapy dogs did
not actually decrease the patients’ symptoms, the participants reported that they enjoyed
interacting with the animals.”).

No studies of AAI included multiple species, thus no direct comparisons between species were
made.

https://petpartners.org/volunteer/our-therapy-animal-program/
Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT)

Animal-assisted therapy is a goal-oriented, planned, structured, and documented therapeutic

intervention directed by health and human service providers as part of their profession. A wide
variety of disciplines may incorporate AAT. Possible practitioners could include physicians,

occupational therapists, physical therapists, certified therapeutic recreation specialists, nurses,

social workers, speech therapists, or mental health professionals.

Therapy Animal

Therapy animals can provide physical, psychological, and emotional benefits to those they

interact with, typically in facility settings such as healthcare, assisted living, and schools. While

most frequently dogs, therapy animals can include other domesticated species such as cats,

equines, and rabbits, to name a few. These pets are evaluated on their ability to safely interact

with a wide range of populations, and their handlers are trained in best practices to ensure

effective interactions that support animal welfare. Therapy animal handlers may volunteer their

time to visit with their animals in the community, or they may be practitioners who utilize the

power of the human-animal bond in professional settings.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/animal-assisted-therapy#:~:text=For

%20autistic%20children%2C%20animal%2Dassisted,change%20the%20characteristics%20of

%20autism.

What is animal-assisted therapy?

In animal-assisted therapy, a trained therapist uses animals as part of a therapy plan. For

example, the therapist might use a therapy dog to help a child learn communication skills. The

therapy might involve encouraging the child to talk to the dog.

Who is animal-assisted therapy for?

Animal-assisted therapy is used for a wide range of medical, developmental and emotional

disorders, including autism.

What is animal-assisted therapy used for?

For autistic children, animal-assisted therapy is used to help children learn empathy,

communication and social skills. It can also be used to help autistic children manage their

behaviour. There’s no evidence that animal assisted therapy can help change the characteristics

of autism.

What is the idea behind animal-assisted therapy for autistic children?

Animal-assisted therapy comes from studies of human-animal interaction and human-animal

bonding. This field looks at the relationship between animals and humans. The theory is that

animals are a source of calming, non-judgmental support and can help with communication and

social interaction.

For example, an autistic child might feel more comfortable interacting and communicating with a

dog. The child might then learn how to apply these social and communication skills in family

and other relationships.

Does animal-assisted therapy work for autistic children?

Some low-quality studies have found that animals can help autistic people develop sensory and

social skills, and manage problem behaviour and stress. But more high-quality research is needed

to find out whether animal-assisted therapy is effective.

Empirical evidence for the effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy (effects, comorbidities,

different approaches medical setting, educational, independence, future outcomes)
• Effectiveness
• Benefits
• Is the dog actually useful?
• What is the intervention supposed to do? (Green, 1996)
• What is the impact of the method on the individual's general quality of life?
• Will the intervention detract from the overall educational and treatment program?
• Have its effects been tested in controlled experiments using direct observation?
• Can these methods be maintained in the long term with appropriately trained
• personnel and other resources

Contradicition

Sample
Sample sizes ranged from 1 to 164 participants.
Approximately half of the studies (54%, n ¼ 15) had
relatively small sample sizes of (O’haire, 2017)

Design and effect size

Most studies (n ¼ 26 of 28) used quantitative (rather
than qualitative) designs: approximately 62% (n ¼ 16)
were within-participants, while the other 38% (n ¼ 10)
were between participants. The within-participants
studies consisted of single-subject designs (n ¼ 7),
simple pre-post (n ¼ 5), and repeated measures with
control conditions (n ¼ 4). The between-participants
studies consisted of nonrandomized (n ¼ 6) and randomized (n ¼ 4) control designs. Only 10 of
28 studies
(36%) reported an effect size metric, which was most
commonly Cohen’s d (n ¼

Control/comparison
Nearly a third (32%) of studies either did not have a
control condition (n ¼ 8) or did not report the content
of the control condition (n ¼

Multiple types of research design are necessary to

move forward the field of autism intervention research
(Mesibov & Shea, 2011). Small sample sizes are not
necessarily a weakness; however, single-subject methodology must include multiple
assessments per individual
across conditions (Kazdin, 2011). Additionally, some
small studies in the current sample enlisted designs that
are more appropriate for larger samples (such as randomized trials), and thus were likely
underpowered to
detect significant differences between groups
Given that not all individuals with autism will benefit, it is important to begin to
determine for whom AAI is beneficial and under what
circumstances. Initial evidence suggests that children
with autism who have verbal language skills engage
more with animals than with their nonverbal peers
(Grandgeorge et al., 2015).
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.lib-ezproxy.concordia.ca/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/jclp.23110
Construct validity and Internal validity

Conclusion
Research on AAI for autism is increasing in prevalence
and methodological rigor. All identified studies
focused on children, with no research on adults. The
characteristics of AAI programs are varied, with horses
as the most commonly researched species, followed by
dogs. Across a heterogeneous group of studies, the
most consistent finding was increased social interaction. Areas of potential promise requiring
further
investigation include positive emotions, stress, and
language or communication. Ongoing study should
focus on technique refinement, evidence-based manualization, the effects of individual
differences, and safeguards for animal welfare. Current practices
should be viewed as potentially promising enrichment
interventions, rather than stand alone or complementary evidence-based treatments.

Ethics (Marino & Lilienfeld, 2020). safeguards for animal welfare

The International Association of Human‐Animal Interaction Organization (IAHAIO) disallows the

use of wild animals in human‐animal interactions and explicitly discourages direct human‐
dolphin interactions as they pose a risk of injury and disease transmission. Moreover, DAT
promotes the confinement of wild animals, namely, dolphins, coerced to interact with
humans in artificial tanks, often contributing to poor well‐being and shortened lives for the
dolphins themselves.

 Effects of AAT
https://www-proquest-com.lib-ezproxy.concordia.ca/docview/1816873564/fulltextPDF/

C350419E90F146DCPQ/1?accountid=10246

Therapies integrating AAT (+ how it functions. What is the function of the animal?)

AAT can be

Empirical evidence for the effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy (effects, comorbidities,

different approaches medical setting, educational, independence, future outcomes)

 Effectiveness

 Benefits

 Is the dog actually useful?

 What is the intervention supposed to do? (Green, 1996)

 What is the impact of the method on the individual's general quality of life?

 Will the intervention detract from the overall educational and treatment program?

 Have its effects been tested in controlled experiments using direct observation?

 Can these methods be maintained in the long term with appropriately trained

 personnel and other resources?

Contradiction and ethical concern

• Can we really trust these results
• Ethical concern for the animal. What about the dog? Does this cause stress Though this
treatment seems to have many benefits for autism person what about the dog? Is the non-
human’s rights protected? The welfare of the animal in animal assisted therapy
• Is the therapy valid and can be generalized in the school system or modern society
• What are the disadvantages of using animals in therapy

Future pursuit (this is what we need to do. This is how we can make it better)