Animal-assisted therapy for children with pervasive developmental disorders

Abstract

The present study quantitatively evaluated the effects of interaction with dogs on children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), disorders characterized by lack of social communi-cations and abilities. While interacting with a therapist, children were exposed to three different conditions: (a) a nonsocial toy (ball), (b) a stuffed dog, and (c) a live dog. Prosocial and nonsocial interactions were evaluated in terms of both behavioral and verbal dimensions. Results show that children exhibited a more playful mood, were more focused, and were more aware of their social environments when in the presence of a therapy dog. These findings indi-cate that interaction with dogs may have specific benefits for this population and suggest that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) may be an appropriate form of therapy. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has been theorized to be an effective form of treatment for childrenwith pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), dis-orders characterized by a severe impairment of social functioning and inter-actions (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Animals may be one way to increase attachment between children with PDD and their social environ-ments. Animals are believed to act as transitional objects, allowing children to first establish bonds with them and then extend these bonds to humans (George, 1988; Katcher, 2000; Winnicott, 1986). Because forming social bonds is difficult for children with PDD, AATmay be an effective method of therapy for this population. To test this hypothesis, the current study evalu-ated the effects of supervised interaction with dogs on children with PDD, examining both behavioral and verbal dimensions. This interactionwith dogs was compared to interactions in two other conditions: (a) a ball and (b) a stuffed dog. To accurately assess differences between conditions,