Children with autism learned tasks better when opportunities for success were mixed with challenges.
Three children (3 to 5 years old) participated in this study. Children were asked to correctly identify letters, numbers, or pictures of animals. A token was given for a correct answer. The children needed to earn 12 tokens during a session in order to play at a child-selected activity after the session. First, children were asked questions that they did not know the answer to. There were 10 to 25 sessions with this method. The numbers of correct responses did not increase very much. Next, the researchers added an interspersal procedure. This procedure mixed questions that the child clearly knew the answer to (success) with others that they might need to learn the answer to (challenge). All 3 children learned to give correct answers most of the time using the interspersal procedure (5 to 20 sessions). They continued to give correct answers after the use of token rewards was decreased.
Autism Therapy: animal-assisted therapy (AAT)
No Factsheets to Display
- Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, by Benavides, CA, and Poulson CL, published in 2009, summarized Oct 28, 2009
- Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, by Barakova, E., Gillessen J., and Feijs L., published in 2009, summarized Jul 30, 2009
Robots and technological toys may help teach social skills to children with autism.
Researchers used special blocks that worked like mini-robots. The blocks changed color depending on which other blocks they were close to. The blocks were used as a therapy tool with twelve children (3-5 years old) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The children were taught specific rules about the blocks. One simpler game focused on interactions between blocks. The second game was more complex and used blocks for symbolic play. Some blocks were "animals" and some were "food" or "water" that children "gave" to animals by moving that block close to the animal block. Pairs of children worked together to make the "zoo" run smoothly. Children needed to learn to pretend a block was an animal or food. Most of the children learned the rules of the first game. Five out of six pairs of children worked well together in the second game. The authors said that if children with autism can understand how to play with a block as if it is food (metaphor), they may be able to learn more complex social skills.
- Psychoanalytic Psychology, by Topel, EM, and Lachmann FM, published in 2008, summarized Dec 30, 2008
Ant farms may be a useful tool for helping people with Asperger syndrome learn about social structure.
This article is a case study of two people with Asperger syndrome who were given a treatment program of animal therapy combined with psychotherapy. At the start of the study, neither patient knew how to relate to others. One patient was a man who came from a strong and noisy family. One patient was an eight-year-old boy who came from a quiet family. Ants were helpful to both of them as a symbol and concrete presence to move psychotherapy treatment forward.
- European Journal of Pharmacology, by Frank, E., and Landgraf R., published in 2008, summarized Sep 26, 2008
Drugs that target the vasopressin system of the body may some day be helpful in the treatment of autism.
This reviews article describes the role of the brain chemical vasopressin in autism. When vasopressin levels were changed in animal studies, the animals sometimes showed signs of autism. Human gene studies have shown that some of the genes that are linked to autism encode for the protein that binds to vasopressin (vasopressin receptor). In people with altered vasopressin receptor genes, it seems that vasopressin levels are normal, but the brain has trouble responding to the levels of vasopressin in the body. There are many studies underway to learn how vasopressin may cause changes in behavior.
In South Texas, funds have been cut for school field trips including outside activities for children with autism. The kids in Room 623 love field trips, especially to the zoo. Those kids were lucky; their teacher understood the connection between children with autism and animals. She also found the zoo was a place to increase all sorts of skills, such as math, reading, science, and bathroom skills. This teacher contacted the Gladys Porter Zoo who happily sent an educator along with several zoo animals to visit the kids. Their teacher had read them Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell and the kids discovered they already knew a lot about the animals.
Read original article: Zoo Visit to Classroom Helpful For Autistic Students
Magical Paws, in Sudbury Ontario, provides animal-assisted therapy to a variety of programs for kids with special needs and autism. Molly, a therapy dog has been helping children for 6 years. She is a service dog, who along with others and their owners, provide emotional therapy, social integration, and even reading therapy. Molly likes to hang out at Simulated Healthy Independent Living Opportunities (SHILO), Reading Tails, and Great Minds Tutor and Life Coach (TLC). Annette Lumbis, coordinator of the Magical Paws program, says, “Our therapy (animals) are trained to provide affection and comfort to just about anybody. We target retirement homes, group homes, nursing homes, day centres, schools”.
Read original article: Magical Paws Get Magical Results
On a regular basis, we highlight speech and language therapy as an important early intervention tool. But what are some of the signs to look for to see if your child needs it? Researchers have compiled a list of the 25 words every toddler should know. They explained that if a child gets to be 2 years old and doesn't know the words, it may indicate a problem, such as autism, hearing issues, or perhaps the child is just a late bloomer. The words include names of toys, food, animals, mommy, daddy, and bye bye. The Language Development Survey consists of 310 words that scientists say toddlers should be familiar with. If a child knows less than 50 of the words, there may be a problem; the average child will know 150 of the words. Professor Leslie Rescorla developed the studies. She explained, "But if the child is still struggling for words by two and a half, they should consider help such as speech therapy, and certainly not put this off past the age of three."
Read original article: The 25 "Must Have" Words Every Child Should Know by the Age of Two
Therapists, educators, and others in Costa Rica who work with children with autism are receiving training in animal-assisted therapy (AAT). AAT uses animals as a part of the therapy for people with emotional and developmental challenges. This type of therapy, many times involving dogs, encourages social, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Marjorie Navarro, the coordinator of Fundación Bacalán in Costa Rica, explains that therapists may seem less threatening when they have an animal with them. AAT allows for a non-judgmental bond between the person and the pet.
Read original article: Dogs in Aid of Emotionally Challenged in Costa Rica
Please comment on animal-assisted therapy (AAT) or other autism therapy topics.
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Responding to animal-assisted therapy (AAT)
Jun 2, 2011 by AnonymousThank you for this article. It is such a great reminder of how invaluable of a resource AAT is for children! We've seen such great responses to our program and we're just in training stages. Children in speech/occupational/and physical therapy are just in love and work extra hard to communicate. It's just amazing. AAT is just a treasure that many people aren't familiar with.
Dorshan
President/Founder of Pawsitive Therapeutic Consulting Services
Your partners in creating BiG PaWsabilities through Animal Assisted Therapy & Activities
Meet Berlin our Great Dane in AAT/AAA training (click here)
Responding to generalized imitation/sounds that goes with words besides oink with pig, moo with a cow, etc.
Feb 12, 2010 by Anonymousexample teaching the language therapist to dote on words that have long and short vowel meanings of two or more syllables, practice this step over and over with an essay and read aloud using breaths and syllable enunciations and differ them with nasal noises and use pictures of animals with sounds and nature that makes sounds of wind, raindrops, person makes sounds of things, stuff use familiar auto car sounds, honking and go over breathing normal with opinion of english syllable usage and preference of ongoing speech used as casual communicatives. Thanks kathy. p.s. syllables are great and have that ambience and effect on toning things down when we see a crisis arriving at the door, don't we? okay my favorite is chry san thi mum wow a mouthful and I do have to take a breath after forcing that word around.
Responding to generalized imitation/sounds that goes with words besides oink with pig, moo with a cow, etc.
Feb 12, 2010 by Anonymousexample teaching the language therapist to dote on words that have long and short vowel meanings of two or more syllables, practice this step over and over with an essay and read aloud using breaths and syllable enunciations and differ them with nasal noises and use pictures of animals with sounds and nature that makes sounds of wind, raindrops, person makes sounds of things, stuff use familiar auto car sounds, honking and go over breathing normal with opinion of english syllable usage and preference of ongoing speech used as casual communicatives. Thanks kathy. p.s. syllables are great and have that ambience and effect on toning things down when we see a crisis arriving at the door, don't we? okay my favorite is chry san thi mum wow a mouthful and I do have to take a breath after forcing that word around.
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT)
Nov 12, 2007 by AnonymousAnimal assisted therapy (AAT) pairs specially trained therapy dogs with children with autism. Social interaction and speech is increased. One resource, Animal Angels is in Pune, India.