Among the common symptoms of children with
autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are diminished communication and/or social
interaction. There have been many treatments proposed to alleviate this
problem, including animal therapies. Studies testing animal-assisted interactions for kids
with ASD have had generally positive results. However, those studies did not
specifically compare the benefits of animals to those of equally
engaging toys. In other words, perhaps it was the stimulation rather than anything particular about animals that helped the kids. Marguerite O’Haire of the University of Queensland and her
colleagues set the record straight: it's the animals all right.
The scientists recruited 99 children
aged 5 to 13, one third of whom were diagnosed with ASD. The kids were divided
into groups of three, with one ASD child and two neurotypical kids in each
group. After signing up, the children had an eight-week waiting period followed
by the eight-week study period during which two guinea pigs lived in their
classroom. Before and after the waiting period and after the study period, the
kids were given unstructured time to play with a variety of toys. Twice each
week during the eight-week study, the guinea pigs were brought out and handled
by the threesome.
Three of those sixteen animal
sessions (the first, last and one in the middle) were videotaped, as were the
three toy sessions. Experienced behavior coders who did not know the aims of
the study watched the tapes and evaluated the kids’ behavior. As an aside, they
used a coding system that was specifically designed for this study, the full
name of which is ‘Observation of Human Animal Interaction for Research’.
The researchers refer to it as OHAIRE, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
Anyway, the children with ASD showed
more prosocial behaviors of nearly every kind (approaching others, speaking to
or looking at others, smiling) during the guinea pig sessions than they did
during the toy sessions. The only exception was that the kids with ASD spoke to
their peers more during the toy sessions (they spoke to adults more when
animals were present). Interestingly, the kids with ASD handled the toys much
more than they did the animals. Apparently, the children didn’t have to
have the guinea pigs in their laps, the animals just had to be around. This was
born out by the fact that 82% of the kids said they preferred the guinea pigs
to the toys.
O'Haire, M., McKenzie, S., Beck, A., & Slaughter, V. (2013). Social Behaviors Increase in Children with Autism in the Presence of Animals Compared to Toys PLoS ONE, 8 (2) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057010.
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