1. Summary Marguerite O’Haire, Samantha McKenzie, Sandra McCune, and Virginia Slaughter conducted a research study that tested the effects of Animal-Assisted Activities on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The objective of their study was to see how Animal-Assisted Activities effect the social functioning of their participants. Their research took place in kindergarten through seventh grade classrooms. In all, 41 classrooms were used and they were from 15 different schools. The children were both male and female and they were from five to twelve years old.
The parents of the participants all agreed to let their children take place in this study. The researchers got the results they were expecting to get. 2. Methods and subjects The researchers began by breaking the participants up into two groups. One group was a waitlist group and the other group was the non-waitlist group. The waitlist group had an eight week waiting period before actually implementing the study. They also had to complete outcome measurements before the waiting period, after the waiting period, and at the end of the study.
The children in the other group were not subject to a waiting period. They were tested before their study and after their study. Each of the 41 classrooms received two guinea pigs of the same sex. This ensured that they would not be alone and that they would not mate and breed. During the eight week study, the children had 16 sessions, two a week, with the guinea pig. The first session consisted of an introductory lesson. The person directing the lesson was not the teacher, it was a facilitator brought in by the researchers. This person did not have any background in animal care.
They did this to ensure that if this study was repeated, it could be done by a teacher or a parent. It was a 15 minute lesson that taught the children how to care for the guinea pig. During the following lessons, they were able to hold and feed the guinea pig. The animals would be placed in a towel and then put into the children’s arms or on their laps. When they fed the guinea pigs, the students would prepare fruits and vegetables for the animal and then they would be able to hand feed it. The materials for this part were grass or hay, fruits or vegetables, a cutting board, and a plastic knife.
Some other things that happened during the lessons were flood time. This was a time for the guinea pig to roam freely on the floor on a blanket or a towel. The children would sit in a circle and the animals would be in the center of them. Some lessons also consisted of visual art. This is a time in which the children were able to draw or take pictures of the animals. Health monitoring was another part of a few of their lessons. They learned how to weigh and measure the animals. Participants also learned how to record the animals’ physical and behavioral characteristics.
They had a health checklist that would help them do this. Another activity they would do during their sessions was to construct shelters, mazes, and toys for their classroom pets. They used recycled materials to do so. Grooming is another important lesson they were taught. They learned how to bathe and brush their animals. The very last thing that they were able to do during sessions was to clean the cage. The participants would empty the cage, provide fresh bedding, and then put the guinea pigs back into their homes. Not all of these things were done during each session.
The only thing that was always done at every session and in every classroom was holding the animal. Some classrooms always had floor time, feeding time, and a visual art aspect. The activity that occurred least was cage cleaning. One classroom never had participant help them clean the cage. The subjects were elementary and middle school students. There were fifty males and 14 females. They were from 41 different classrooms from 15 different schools. All of the participants were in schools that had inclusive classrooms. Their ages ranged from five years old all the way to twelve years old.
Most of the children who took part in the study had a previous diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder; however, other students from their inclusive class, who did not have a previous diagnosis of Autism, were included in the study as a control. 3. Findings and Implications Researchers found that there were significant improvements in the children’s’ social functioning. They measured their results in two ways. The teachers filled out a report and the parents also filled out a report. The Pervasive Developmental Disorder Behavior Inventory (PDDBI) was used to measure outcomes of the participants.
There is a parent version and a teacher version. The original versions of each are well over 150 items. In order to save time, and in hopes that it would actually get completed, researchers shortened the teacher version to 48 items and the parent version to 52 items. Another test that was used was the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). It also had a teacher version and a parent version. This specific rating system was designed for elementary school teachers and parents of elementary school goers. It was used to assess skills in all the children whether they have been diagnosed with Autism or not.
The assessments were given to teachers and parents at the same time. The waitlist group was given these assessments three times, and the non-waitlist group was given them twice. The parent and teacher evaluations showed no improvement from the beginning of the waiting period to the week before the study took place. However, there was improvement from the beginning of the study to the end. Parent’s noticed that their children were more willing and eager to go to school. They also saw an increase in social approach behaviors, or positive social behaviors, on the PDDBI.
Parents and teachers saw a decrease in social withdrawal behaviors on the PDDBI. On the SSRS, parents and teachers also saw a decrease in problem behaviors and an increase in social skills. There were such positive results that all of the guinea pigs were adopted by the classroom teachers or parents of the students who took part in the study. 4. Applications for this case This could be beneficial to Noah because in the study, researchers noticed the increase in positive social behaviors, but also a decrease in negative social behaviors. The animals in the classroom served as a social support.
This could be very beneficial to Noah because he can often times become very overwhelmed with his peers and the staff at camp. If there was an animal, in a safe environment, that he was able to go sit with at, then it might help him calm down. The animals in the classrooms also helped to facilitate social interactions between the students in the class. This could be good for Noah because it would help him to interact with his peers. Noah becomes overwhelmed in social situations which can result in a display of negative social behaviors.
If this study were able to decrease these negative behaviors, then it would be a good study for Noah to participate in. However, right now, Noah is a participant in a summer enrichment day camp program. It would have to be changed from a classroom setting to a camp setting. This could also not be the best treatment for Noah because of how much is going on during one session. There are children holding the guinea pig, children feeding the guinea pig, and other things happening in the class as well.
