Autism Therapy: DIR

SpiritHorse therapeutic provides free, private equine-assisted healthcare in our award winning programs to over 450 children with disabilities each week at our facilities just north of Dallas, Texas. One hundred-sixty of these children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

We provide healthcare rather than the customary recreation the therapeutic riding industry is known for. We have developed eleven specific methods for intervention with autism and an instructor who is our autism specialist. These methods are based upon the elements of Alternative Behavior Analysis the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based method (DIR Floortime) and the knowledge that specific physical activity can create neurological changes. We have a distinct advantage in crossing the first hurdle of DIR/Floortime which is finding something with which to engage the child. Children love ponies. We have been very successful in developing experience sharing with the rider, their parent, the pony, and their instructor.

One beautiful day this spring Nathan (a five year old boy with autism who has learned to speak since coming to SpiritHorse) was riding Fudge along the trail with his instructor Nikki leading and his mom walking alongside. He reached out and took his Mom's hand and said: "I love you mommy". We believe that he did this because the experience was so wonderful that he just had to share it. When his Mom regained control she tearfully said: "That is the first time he ever told me he loves me". These things happen often at SpiritHorse.

Using these methods we have developed, we have heard thirty-one children with autism speak their first word on one of our ponies.

We have discovered that our riders with autism prefer to turn left rather than right. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that this is because the right hemisphere of the brain develops first and when the left hemisphere starts to develop, its development is delayed with the onset of autism, and of course the less developed left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Incidentally, language comes from the left hemisphere and this developmental delay of the left hemisphere is the reason that many children with autism have delayed language.

We performed a pilot study with five riders with autism doing a sitting trot in a twenty foot circle a total of 60 counter-clockwise and 60 clockwise revolutions. We recorded only two incidences of unbalance in the counter-clockwise direction and a total of twenty-eight incidences of unbalance in the clockwise direction. We also noticed a significant number of negative non-verbal reactions in the clockwise direction. After twelve weekly lessons, all of these children were balanced in both directions with no negative non-verbal responses. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that we are building synapses (circuits that make the brain function) in the left hemisphere through the work in the clockwise direction, and thereby reversing autism to some degree.

We also performed a study of five of our children who do not have a diagnosis of autism and they were equally balanced in both directions at the outset.

Additionally, we conducted a pilot study by having five children with a diagnosis of autism weave in and out of a line of traffic cones. We found that these children missed five times more right turns than left. The left hemisphere, most affected by autism, did not respond well on the right turns. Very interestingly, we noticed a two to three second delay in the movement of the right arm when turning right, enough delay that a cone was often missed.

After twelve weekly lessons, these children missed very few turns and neither direction was predominate. Very interestingly, the delay in the movement of the right hand for right turns disappeared. Our medical advisory board believes that we are reversing under-connectivity with this exercise.

Following the lead of Temple Grandin who invented the "squeeze machine", we use riding safety vests strapped very tightly to help our riders with autism who have difficulty in regulating. These vests are very different from the weighted vests often used for children with autism. The weighted vests place pressure on the shoulders, while these vests are adjusted to place pressure on the trunk, more like Temple Grandin's machine. For those with this symptom the results are often dramatic.

The impact of our methods for children with autism has been under study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for over one year. Dr. Janet Kern, assistant professor of their Department of Psychiatry commented: "The preliminary results are excellent".

SpiritHorse has just reached an agreement with the University of North Texas Biofeedback/Rehab Department to perform EEGs and brain mapping on our riders with autism before and after each lesson. Through these tests they can objectively measure many brain functions, including under-connectivity. They will also measure rhythm, which a recent study showed its development to be an intervention with autism. We develop rhythm to a maximum degree in our riding program.

With these measurements we hope to further refine and develop additional methods for intervention with autism. We also have plans to provide free training to therapeutic riding instructors from around the world to develop autism specialists that will change programs at other centers from recreation to healthcare.

SpiritHorse was awarded the coveted Dallas Ft Worth Alliance for Healthcare Excellence Servant Leadership Award for 2006 for: "High quality, affordable healthcare in the North Texas Area". The award was won by Baylor Hospital Systems in 2005 and Parkland Hospital in 2004. We are very proud to have been recognized by North Texas health professionals for our work with children with autism.

Charles I. Fletcher
Founder/President
SpiritHorse Therapeutic