Dog training intervention improves adaptive social communication skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder: A controlled crossover study

Social Skill Abilities and Demographic Correlates of Older Volunteers

Older age is associated with reduced social networks while social skill abilities are important assets for older people to cope with these situations. To better understand older people's social skill ability and important demographic correlates, the present cross-sectional survey research interviewed 1000 Taiwanese older volunteers from 73 community care centers. Findings of a mixed model indicated that education and serving area outweighed other demographic factors significantly correlated with older volunteers' social skill ability. Latent class analyses further identified different latent ability groups for different education (high vs. low) or serving-area (urban vs. suburban) older volunteers. Specifically, low-education or suburban volunteers were correlated with disadvantageous social skill profiles. Notably, the suburban eclectic ability group exhibited a skill pattern signifying the risk of loneliness. Overall, the findings called for further investigation into the relationship between older people's socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and serving area) and their social skill ability.

Animal-assisted therapies for autism

Animal-assisted therapies have been increasingly used as part of treatment for a range of emotional-behavioral conditions and have more recently been incorporated into treatment for children with symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder affects one in 36 children and early interventions can be very effective. The aims of this paper are to: 1) provide background into animal-assisted therapies including a breakdown on the subtypes of therapies, 2) report broad summaries of research outcomes across various domains: social-emotional, physical, quality of life, behavioral skills, and adaptive skills, and 3) summarize key takeaways for pediatric practitioners when supporting families of youth with autism spectrum disorder who are interested in participating in animal-assisted therapy. This paper is not a systematic review or meta-analysis as several rigorous review studies have been published already. This paper is an overview of the background and research for pediatric practitioners when advising families on treatment options. Implications for future research are covered.

The effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

and purpose Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulty with communication, learning, behaviour, and social interactions. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a growing alternative and complementary therapy for ASD. This review aims to investigate the effectiveness of AAT for children and adolescents with ASD in the domains of cognitive, social, emotional, behavioural, and physical.

METHODS

A systematic search of databases (Medline, Emcare, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, ERIC and OTseeker) was conducted in March 2022. Grey literature was also explored which included searching Trove database and the first 10 pages of Google, as well as pearling reference lists of included studies. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using a modified Joanna Briggs Institute Review Form for Randomised Controlled Trials. A descriptive synthesis was undertaken due to heterogeneity within the evidence base.

RESULTS

Seven randomised controlled/clinical controlled trials with moderate methodological quality were included in this review. Overall, participation in AAT identified positive trends in the cognitive, social, emotional, behavioural, and physical domains. Despite the positive outcomes, implementation of AAT should be taken with caution as there are currently no standardised frameworks due to heterogeneity within the intervention protocols and outcome measures.

CONCLUSION

AAT may have positive effects across a multitude of outcomes in the management of ASD for children and adolescents. However, the current literature has considerable methodological concerns which should be addressed by future research.

Are children and dogs best friends? A scoping review to explore the positive and negative effects of child-dog interactions

Personal wellbeing is greatly influenced by our childhood and adolescence, and the relationships formed during those phases of our development. The human-dog bond represents a significant relationship that started thousands of years ago. There is a higher prevalence of dog ownership around the world, especially in households including children. This has resulted in a growing number of researchers studying our interactions with dogs and an expanding evidence base from the exploration of child-dog interactions. We review the potential effects of child-dog interactions on the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of both species. A search of the SCOPUS database identified documents published between January 1980 and April 2022. Filtering for key inclusion criteria, duplicate removals, and inspecting the references of these documents for additional sources, we reviewed a total of 393 documents, 88% of which were scientific articles. We were able to define the numerous ways in which children and dogs interact, be it neutral (e.g., sharing a common area), positive (e.g., petting), or negative (e.g., biting). Then, we found evidence for an association between childhood interaction with dogs and an array of benefits such as increased physical activities, a reduction of stress, and the development of empathy. Nonetheless, several detrimental outcomes have also been identified for both humans and dogs. Children are the most at-risk population regarding dog bites and dog-borne zoonoses, which may lead to injuries/illness, a subsequent fear of dogs, or even death. Moreover, pet bereavement is generally inevitable when living with a canine companion and should not be trivialized. With a canine focus, children sometimes take part in caretaking behaviors toward them, such as feeding or going for walks. These represent opportunities for dogs to relieve themselves outside, but also to exercise and socialize. By contrast, a lack of physical activity can lead to the onset of obesity in both dogs and children. Dogs may present greater levels of stress when in the presence of children. Finally, the welfare of assistance, therapy, and free-roaming dogs who may interact with children remains underexplored. Overall, it appears that the benefits of child-dog interactions outweigh the risks for children but not for dogs; determination of the effects on both species, positive as well as negative, still requires further development. We call for longitudinal studies and cross-cultural research in the future to better understand the impact of child-dog interactions. Our review is important for people in and outside of the scientific community, to pediatricians, veterinarians, and current or future dog owners seeking to extend their knowledge, and to inform future research of scientists studying dogs and human-animal interactions.

Self-perceived empathic abilities of people with autism towards living beings mostly differs for humans

Being phylogenetically close involves greater empathic perceptions towards other species. To explore this phenomenon, this study investigates the influence of neurocognitive predispositions to empathy on our perceptions of other organisms. Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized, among others, by weakened empathic skills. Our online survey involved a group of 202 raters with ASD and a control group of 1100 raters, who had to make choices to assess their empathic perceptions toward an extended photographic sampling of organisms. Results highlight that both groups present overall similar trends in their empathic preferences, with empathy scores significantly decreasing with the phylogenetic distance relatively to humans. However, the empathy score attributed to Homo sapiens in the ASD group represents a striking outlier in the yet very sharp overall correlation between empathy scores and divergence time, scoring our species as low as cold-blooded vertebrates. These results are consistent with previous studies, which emphasized that (1) understanding human beings would be more difficult for people with ASD than decoding “animals” and (2) that Theory of Mind impairment would not represent a global deficit in people with ASD but may relate to the mindreading of specifically human agents.