Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Canine-Assisted Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Review

Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 7, pages 197–204 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

 Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has been suggested to increase prosocial behavior in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Out of all the animals used in AAT, dogs have been found to be the most utilized and accessible. This systematic review examines the current state of literature on canine-assisted therapy (CAT) for children with ASD based on peer-reviewed articles. Five studies met inclusion and exclusion criteria. All articles found that presence of a therapy dog was correlated with increased frequency and duration of social behavior both throughout treatment and, in the case of one study, at follow-up. However, methodological limitations such as small sample sizes and sub-optimal analytic procedures suggest that existing studies might not accurately reflect the true nature of the relationship between CAT and social behavior. Therefore, further exploration of this area of research using methodologically strong studies is warranted and necessary. Recommendations for future research are included.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baio, J., Wiggins, L., Christensen, D. L., Maenner, M. J., Daniels, J., Warren, Z., et al. (2018). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(6), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6706a1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, S. B., & Dawson, K. S. (1998). The effects of animal-assisted therapy on anxiety ratings of hospitalized psychiatric patients. Psychiatric Services, 49(6), 797–801.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, J. L., Rogers, E. C., & Burrows, B. (2017). Animal-assisted social skills training for children with autism spectrum disorders. Anthrozoös, 30(2), 307–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2017.1311055.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breitenbach, E., Stumpf, E., Fersen, L. V., & Ebert, H. (2009). Dolphin-assisted therapy: changes in interaction and communication between children with severe disabilities and their caregivers. Anthrozoos, 22(3), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.2752/175303709X457612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, S. B., Pandurangi, A. K., & Best, A. M. (2003). Effects of animal-assisted therapy on patients' anxiety, fear, and depression before ECT. The Journal of ECT, 19(1), 38-44.

  • Christon, L. M., Mackintosh, V. H., & Myers, B. J. (2010). Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4(2), 249–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2009.09.013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. (2012). Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). Western Psychological Services. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_296.

  • Folse, E. B., Minder, C. C., Aycock, M. J., & Santana, R. T. (1994). Animal-assisted therapy and depression in adult college students. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 7(3), 188–194. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279394787001880.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung, S. C., & Leung, A. S. M. (2014). Pilot study investigating the role of therapy dogs in facilitating social interaction among children with autism. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 44(4), 253–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-014-9274-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabriels, R. L., Agnew, J. A., Holt, K. D., Shoffner, A., Zhaoxing, P., Ruzzano, S., … Mesibov, G. (2012). Pilot study measuring the effects of therapeutic horseback riding on school-age children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6(2), 578–588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2011.09.007.

  • Grigore, A. A., & Rusu, A. S. (2014). Interaction with a therapy dog enhances the effects of social story method in autistic children. Society & Animals, 22(3), 241–261. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabriels, R. L., Pan, Z., Dechant, B., Agnew, J. A., Brim, N., & Mesibov, G. (2015) Randomized controlled trial of therapeutic horseback riding in children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(7), 541-549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.04.007.

  • Gray, C. (2010). The new social story book. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.

  • Hansen, K. M., Messinger, C. J., Baun, M. M., & Megel, M. (1999). Companion animals alleviating distress in children. Anthrozoos, 12(3), 142–148. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279399787000264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphries, T. L. (2003). Effectiveness of dolphin-assisted therapy as a behavioral intervention for young children with disabilities. Bridges, 1(6).

  • Hallgren, K. A. (2012). Computing inter-rater reliability for observational data: An overview and tutorial. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 8(1), 23-34.

  • IBM Corp. Released 2017. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.

  • Jarde, A., Losilla, J., Vives, J., & Rodrigo, M. F. (2013). Q-Coh: A tool to screen the methodological quality of cohort studies in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 13(2), 138-146

  • Kaminski, M., Pellino, T., & Wish, J. (2002). Play and pets: the physical and emotional impact of child-life and pet therapy on hospitalized children. Children’s Health Care, 31(4), 321–335. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326888CHC3104_5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kern, J. K., Fletcher, C. L., Garver, C. R., Mehta, J. A., Grannemann, B. D., Knox, K. R., … Trivedi, M. H. (2011). Prospective trial of equine-assisted activities in autism spectrum disorder. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 17(3), 14–20.

  • Kozlowski, A. M., Matson, J. L., Horovitz, M., Worley, J. A., & Neal, D. (2011). Parents’ first concerns of their child’s development in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 14(2), 72–78. https://doi.org/10.3109/17518423.2010.539193.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marino, L., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2007). Dolphin-assisted therapy: more flawed data and more flawed conclusions. Anthrozoos, 20(3), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279307X224782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, F., & Farnum, J. (2002). Animal-assisted therapy for children with pervasive developmental disorders. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 24(6), 657–670. https://doi.org/10.1177/019394502236639.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., … Stewart, L. A. (2015). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Systematic Reviews, 4(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1.

  • Nagengast, S. L., Baun, M. M., Megel, M., & Michael Leibowitz, J. (1997). The effects of the presence of a companion animal on physiological arousal and behavioral distress in children during a physical examination. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 12(6), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0882-5963(97)80058-9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nathanson, D. E. (1998). Long-term effectiveness of dolphin-assisted therapy for children with severe disabilities. Anthrozoös, 11(1), 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.1998.11425084.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nathanson, D. E., De Castro, D., Friend, H., & McMahon, M. (1997). Effectiveness of short-term dolphin-assisted therapy for children with severe disabilities. Anthrozoos, 10(2–3), 90–100. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279397787001166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nimer, J., & Lundahl, B. (2007). Animal-assisted therapy: a meta-analysis. Anthrozoos, 20(3), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.2752/089279307X224773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Haire, M. E. (2013). Animal-assisted intervention for autism spectrum disorder: a systematic literature review. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(7), 1606–1622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1707-5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Powers, D. M. (2012). The problem with kappa. Proceedings from EACL 12. In The 13th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Avignon, France.

  • Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders--Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 14 sites, United States, 2008. (2012). Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries (Vol. 61). Washington, D.C.

  • Redefer, L. A., & Goodman, J. F. (1989). Brief report: Pet-facilitated therapy with autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19(3), 461–467. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02212943.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, E., & Sofronoff, K. (2005). Anxiety and social worries in children with Asperger Syndrome. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 39(7), 633–638. https://doi.org/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2005.01637.x.

  • Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Charman, T., Chandler, S., Loucas, T., & Baird, G. (2008). Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(8), 921–929. https://doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e318179964f.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, C., Friedmann, E., & Thomas, S. A. (2010). The effect of animal-assisted therapy on stress responses in hospitalized children. Anthrozoos, 23(3), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.2752/175303710X12750451258977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, S. W., Oswald, D., Ollendick, T., & Scahill, L. (2009). Anxiety in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Clinical Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.01.003.

  • White, S. W., Keonig, K., & Scahill, L. (2007) Social skills development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A review of the intervention research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(10), 1858-1868. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0320-x.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palo Alto University, Program, 1791, Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    Kristin K. Hardy & Robyn N. Weston

Authors
  1. Kristin K. Hardy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robyn N. Weston
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristin K. Hardy.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hardy, K.K., Weston, R.N. Canine-Assisted Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Review. Rev J Autism Dev Disord 7, 197–204 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-019-00188-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-019-00188-5

Keywords

search

Navigation