L’animal de compagnie dans la vie des enfants au développement typique et atypique et de leur famille

Abstract

L’environnement social des enfants et adolescents revêt une importance majeure dans leur développement. Négligé pendant longtemps, il est désormais de plus en plus reconnu que l’animal de compagnie joue lui aussi un rôle essentiel. C’est au travers d’une revue de littérature des bienfaits des animaux dans la vie des enfants et adolescents au développement typique, mais aussi atypique (ici illustré avec les troubles du spectre autistique) que nous aborderons les dernières connaissances relatives à cette question. En nous intéressant également aux effets plus larges de l’animal sur l’ensemble de la sphère familiale, nous relèverons aussi certains points de vigilance associés aux défis de la vie d’un groupe familial avec un ou des animaux.

Effects of service dogs on children with ASD’s symptoms and parents’ well-being: On the importance of considering those effects with a more systemic perspective

“…Consistent with previous studies, the results confirmed that the integration of a SD benefits both the children with ASD and their parents [ 61 – 63 , 67 – 72 ]. Significant improvements in core ASD symptoms were observed as early as 3 months after SD integration, while significant decreases in parents’ trait anxiety and parenting stress were observed 6 months after SD integration.…”

“…However, the benefits of integrating a SD within the family household are not limited to the child with ASD, as they may also extend to parents as well, even though they are not the primary recipients of the SD. Specifically, following SD integration, parents of children with ASD experience improvement in their feelings of parental competence and security, as well as decreases in their stress and anxiety [ 62 , 63 , 67 – 69 , 71 , 72 ]. Using cortisol sampling, Fecteau and collaborators [ 29 ] demonstrated that while parents of children with ASD had low morning cortisol activity prior to SD integration, they showed a decrease in their parenting stress and an improvement in their cortisol activity after SD integration.…”

“…It has been speculated that the child’s interaction and the quality of the relationship with the animal play a crucial role in the benefits that pets can provide for children with ASD [ 63 , 73 – 76 ]. However, only a few studies have addressed this question, and these studies remain limited to pet dogs.…”

“…While the association between child-dog relationship and parents’ well-being have been previously examined in families of children with ASD with a pet dog [ 74 ], this association has never been examined in families integrating a SD. Investigating it may nevertheless be important, because although SDs are already fully trained, their integration entails additional responsibilities for the families of children with ASD (e.g., training routine, feeding, integration into almost every family activity, walks, inclusion in public outings) [ 63 , 65 , 87 ], which fall to the parents when their child has poor autonomy or attachment to his/her SD. Given that parents of children with ASD may already experience high levels of stress prior to SD integration, it is of even greater interest to consider this potential additional burden and stressor associated with poor child-SD relationship [ 29 , 63 , 85 , 88 ].…”

“…It thus appears that integrating a SD into the family of a child with ASD may entangle numerous dynamic and reciprocal influences within the child-parent-SD trio that is formed, particularly between the child with ASD and his/her parent (e.g., the child’s ASD symptoms have an influence on the parent’s well-being and parenting strategies), and between the child with ASD and the SD (i.e., the quality of the child-dog relationship has an influence on benefits for the child), which may reciprocally influence each other (e.g., the benefits of SD on the child may lead to benefits on the parents which may lead to changes in how they interact with their child) [for a personal account, 89 ].…”