Verbal Interactional Synchronization between Therapist and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during Dolphin Assisted Therapy: Five Case Studies

Abstract

Simple SummaryThis study investigates the synchrony in conversations (i.e., turn-taking) between a therapist and five children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during dolphin-assisted therapy. Videos of the first and last dolphin-assisted therapy sessions were analyzed with regard to turn-taking between the therapist and child in the presence of a dolphin. The results show that adequate turn-taking seemed to increase over time, but mainly for children who had reasonable verbal communication skills at the start of the therapy sessions.AbstractSynchronizing behaviors in interactions, such as during turn-taking, are often impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Therapies that focus on turn-taking generally lead to increased social skills, less interruptions, and silent pauses, however a positive non-demanding environment is therefore thought to be beneficial. Such an environment can be achieved by incorporating animals into therapy. Our study was guided by the following research questions: (1) How can we characterize the interaction between child and therapist during dolphin-assisted therapy, with regard to synchrony in verbalizations (turn-taking) and (2) does synchrony change over the course of six sessions of therapy? To answer these questions, we performed a cross-recurrence quantification analysis on behavioral data of five children, to give a detailed view of the interaction between therapist and child in the context of dolphin-assisted therapy. We were able to detect synchrony (i.e., adequate turn-taking) in all dyads, although not all children improved equally. The differences might be explained by a delayed reaction time of some children, and their level of language development.

Third time's the charm or three strikes you're out? An updated review of the efficacy of dolphin‐assisted therapy for autism and developmental disabilities

“…In the case of ASD, the emotional desire to "connect" with one's child can leave parents especially vulnerable to effort justification. Except for Griffioen et al (2019), the other five studies assessed neglected to adequately control for informant retrospective bias.…”

“…This article comprised five case studies investigating the synchrony in conversations (i.e., turn-taking) between a therapist and five children with ASD during DAT. Although this study (Griffioen et al, 2019) was partly exploratory, the authors set out to not just characterize turn-taking but to explicitly determine whether DAT exerted an impact upon it; hence, it was partly confirmatory as well. They noted that therapies that boost synchrony can increase social skills, which can also be helpful for children with ASD.…”

Evaluating Animal-Assisted Interventions: An Empirical Illustration of Differences between Outcome Measures

“…Some authors argue that AAI provides such a context [47]. A recent study of Griffioen and colleagues [48] shows that AAI can positively influence the turn-taking skills of children with ASD, although the results depend on the child’s ability to verbally express him/herself.…”

Changes in behavioural synchrony during dog‐assisted therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder and children with Down syndrome

“…In this study, the present authors analysed the diagonal cross‐recurrence profile (DCRP; (Abney, Paxton, Dale, & Kello, ; Abney, Warlaumont, Oller, Wallot, & Kello, ; Davis et al, ; De Jonge‐Hoekstra, Steen, Geert, & Cox, ; Griffioen, van der Steen, Cox, Verheggen, & Enders‐Slegers, ; Nomikou, Leonardi, Rohlfing, & Rączaszek‐Leonardi, ; Reuzel et al, ; Richardson & Dale, ). That is, the present authors zoomed in on a 30‐s window around the main diagonal (also called line of synchrony, LOS) in the recurrence plot.…”