Service Dogs: Autistic Children’s Best Friends?
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A recent report by ABC News and Good Morning America examined a relatively new method of helping children with the disorder (and their families) by using trained service dogs—the kind of dogs that we are all used to seeing assist the blind and deaf.
Service dogs provide comfort, help and support
Groups such as 4 Paws for Ability and the North Star Foundation have been working with service dogs and the families of autistic children and people with other disorders and disabilities. The dogs from both groups are trained to do work with specific disorders—in other words, these service dogs are specialists to an extent. 4 Paws was the first agency to begin placing skilled autism service dogs and continues to be the largest organization in the United States to do so. The dogs that work with autistic children are trained to work with specific behaviors that are unique to the autism spectrum including impaired or limited verbal ability and communication skills, an inability to connect well with his or her environment, an inability to read emotions, wandering and repetitive, often ritual-like behaviors.
These specially trained service dogs have proved helpful with all of these behaviors. Tracking is one of their key tasks and is a relief for many parents of autistic children who wander. Using a distinctly Pavlovian model, the dogs are trained in such a way that the child’s behavior elicits a response in the dog that will be helpful, calming, protective (or all three) depending upon the task at hand. Some dogs even attend school with the children. The dogs are also socialized with the children to ensure that the paring is a good one. North Star has a puppy education program which occurs during the first six months of the puppy’s life. That education is then provided to the families of their clients, who become partners in training the dog to meet their child’s specific needs.
According to 4 Paws: “Research indicates that the child with Autism displays behaviors toward their dog that they rarely, if ever, display towards human companions. In addition, the child that is partnered with a [service] dog is found to seek their dog out for companionship, comfort, and confiding in ways never shown to family members.”Both 4 Paws and North Assert that using service dogs has a therapeutic effect that is heightened in a child with autism because of the powerful nature of communication between the dog and the child. The nonverbal avenue of interacting with a dog is important advantage because of the communication issues surrounding the autistic spectrum, and through this nonverbal advantage they help with socialization, emotional and educational issues.
Are service dogs a cure?
Thus far, there is no cure for autism or any of the disorders along the PDD spectrum. According to John Adams, Ph.D., “Left untreated, many autistic children will not develop effective social skills and may not learn to talk or behave appropriately. Very few individuals recover completely from autism without any intervention. … There [is however, a] variety of treatment options [and their effects].” Among the common therapies are medication, emotional and behavioral therapies including Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), music therapy, sensory therapy and many others. While there are many therapies being used and studied for helping autistic children, working with service dogs seems to be one that is having positive effects not only for autistic children but for their families as well.
Some Resources (in alphabetical order)
- 4 Paws for Ability
- Autism and Vaccine Link: Get Over it
- Is My Child Autistic?
- New Genetic Find on Autism
- New Research Into Autism
- North Star Dogs
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