Pilot Study Investigating the Role of Therapy Dogs in Facilitating Social Interaction among Children with Autism

An Observational Study on Canine-assisted Play Therapy for Children with Autism: Move towards the Phrase of Manualization and Protocol Development

“…Therapy animals can be incorporated into various theoretical frameworks (Chandler, 2011). It is a healthy development to have multi-disciplinary helping professionals, such as occupational therapists (Memishevikj & Hodzhikj, 2010;Sams et al, 2006), certified riding instructors (Gabriels et al, 2015;Lanning et al, 2014), and therapists (Fung & Leung, 2014;Redefer & Goodman, 1989), adopt AAI in their therapy sessions and conduct initial efficacy studies. According to the four-phase model (Smith et al, 2007), after initial efficacy studies are performed, the following step is to assemble intervention manuals and establish protocol to implement and evaluate the manualized intervention in subsequent clinical trials.…”

“…As shown in Table 1, many different terms-such as pet-facilitated therapy (Redefer & Goodman, 1989), animal-assisted therapy (Martin & Farnum, 2002), occupational therapy with animals (Sams et al, 2006), service dogs (Burrows et al, 2008;Viau et al, 2010), therapy dogs (Solomon, 2010), canine-assisted therapy (Silva et al, 2011) and animal-assisted play therapy (Fung & Leung, 2014)-have been used in CAAT studies. In addition to the varied terminology, no study has replicated standardized programs from another CAAT study (see Table 1).…”

“…In addition to the varied terminology, no study has replicated standardized programs from another CAAT study (see Table 1). Within nine CAAT studies in Table 1, canine-assisted play therapy (CAPT) (Fung & Leung, 2014;Issacs, 1998;Redefer & Goodman, 1989;Silva et al, 2011) and service-dog home placement or home visits (Burrows et al, 2008;Solomon 2010;Viau et al, 2010) are found to be main intervention forms; however, most of these CAAT programs were only briefly described (Issacs, 1998;Martin & Farnum, 2002;Redefer & Goodman, 1989;Sams et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2011;Solomon, 2010). Some studies contained no program description (Burrows et al, 2008;Viau et al, 2010).…”

“…Moreover, the duration of the CAPT (from 6 to 15 weeks), the number of sessions (from 2 to 18), and the length of each session (from 15 to 45 minutes) all varied, and there were no standard research protocols in the CAAT studies. As shown in Table 1, the major type of assessment in CAAT studies is behavioral coding (Fung & Leung, 2014;Issacs, 1998;Martin & Farnum, 2002;Redefer & Goodman, 1989;Sams et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2011). However, no uniformed coding system is available.…”

“…The many possibilities for utilizing canines in different play contexts and different settings make CAPT more difficult than THR to establish as a standardized intervention for ASD populations. However, trained canines, who are non-judgmental audiences, speech elicitors, younger siblings, and comfort companions (Fung, 2016), make CAPT an interactive intervention that had been evidenced as initial efficacy treatment for children with ASD (for example, Redefer & Goodman, 1989;Fung & Leung, 2014). As suggested by Smith et al, (2007) a decade ago, the priorities in ASD research should include initial efficacy studies on interventions for core features of ASD, such as social reciprocity and preparation for efficacy and effectiveness trials, by developing manuals for interventions that have shown promise.…”