Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by early manifestation and by affecting the social plane of children who present it. Interaction with dogs is related to positive effects on children’s health.
What does a dog bring to a child with autism?
The dog’s companionship stimulates communicative skills to connect with the outside world and even gradually breaks down the isolation that makes them reluctant to conventional forms of intervention.
In the case of people with ASD, dogs are currently used in two types of tasks that you can delve into with ISEP’s Master’s in Animal-Assisted Therapy:
Assistance dogs for children with autism
On the one hand, there are therapy dogs that are directly incorporated into therapeutic treatments, enhancing their psychoeducational effects. Dog-assisted therapy promotes attention, reduces stress, and helps people with ASD improve their emotional, social, and communicative skills during therapy (grupo-dandelion.es, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2016).
On the other hand, there are service dogs that receive specialized training to respond appropriately to any need in the daily lives of children with ASD and their families. The dog’s functions range from accompanying the child on their usual routes, helping the child with household chores and other activities that foster autonomy and responsibility, acting as a promoter of social relationships, and physically intervening if the child suffers a crisis or becomes anxious, aggressive, or isolates themselves from their environment (www.grupo-dandelion.es, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2016).
Studies on dogs and their interaction with children with ASD
A study conducted at the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri (U.S.A.) included 70 children, aged between 8 and 18, who received care at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, in Colombia. A large part of the families participating in the research had dogs and almost half had cats. Other domestic animals included fish, farm animals, rodents, rabbits, reptiles, birds, and even a spider.
The data found revealed that children with autism who lived with dogs, compared to those who did not have pets, seemed to have greater social skills. Likewise, it was highlighted that children with any type of pet at home are more likely to engage in social behaviors such as responding to other people’s questions.
In this sense, researchers pointed out that animals can serve as social catalysts. When pets are present in social environments, people with autism may try to engage more with others.
Benefits of dogs as companions for children with ASD
Returning to the benefits of dogs as companions for children with ASD, it has also been scientifically proven that in addition to promoting interaction, dogs are great companions and offer a certain sense of security. In the case of assistance dogs for children with autism (unlike guide dogs, which help with physical tasks), they are always with their owner to provide emotional support.
We know that people with autism often cannot filter sensory information as they hear, feel, and generally cannot ignore or redirect those stimuli. With a dog next to a person with ASD, the animal can help them by giving them a focal point or a way to ground their environmental experiences.
Likewise, most children with autism have no concept of personal safety and may wander outdoors and run into traffic without paying attention to risks. Assistance dogs have the ability to help these individuals cross the street and learn traffic rules, prevent elopement and potential accidents. For example, a child can be tethered to the dog’s harness to prevent any accident.
Furthermore, the affection and gentleness of the assistance dog helps the child, with just its presence, to be tolerant and use playful body language. In turn, the child will reduce compulsive behaviors. In this sense, the dog acts as an ally of the therapist trained in animal-assisted therapy, providing an environment of unconditional acceptance and transforming the adverse characteristics of the situation into a friendly environment where pleasant experiences are favored, which promotes the child’s motivation for therapy.
Finally, the dog provides a wealth of sensations and experiences that can be perceived as integrated, coherent, and based on easily interpretable emotional communication. Therefore, the animal can serve as a bridge for people with ASD to learn to interpret communicative and social situations, enhancing their self-perception and perception of others (empathy) and improving their performance in them.
ISEP’s master’s in animal-assisted therapy offers you the opportunity to provide a new psychotherapeutic intervention model that breaks barriers and achieves what many people cannot: reaching the hearts of people with ASD.