Dogs, Therapist, and Autustic Kids

I think the last post was called "Catching Up." It's not going to happen. I'm back from Seward, J1 should be in LA by now, meaning she felt J was going to survive without her around. I know that various nearby friends of his, of ours, of his sister have volunteered to help out.

So I'll break these down into discrete posts. I called the therapist Thursday to see if I could get my exercises before the long weekend. She squeezed me in and it's a short walk from home. So I have a page of exercises and the splint is gone. Just this minimal way to keep the two finger buddy system working, and I can slip it off for washing, typing, etc.

Therapist has two dogs in the office. They checked to see if I was ok with them - after I was sniffed. I am ok with them. I asked something about dogs and therapy and sensing the injuries of the patients. What I got in response was stories about how the dogs work wonders with autistic kids in for physical therapy. The dogs know immediately that these kids are different and instead of playing with them as they do with other kids, they just lie down and get real calm, often with a head in the kid's lap.

And the kids who normally are off the wall suddenly calm down too. Seems there is some research to do here. The news had stuff about dogs demonstrating moral thinking last week, so when will this come out?

Of course I can't ask that question without going to google. Here's the first thing I found at Pet Palace: (Pet Palace is also paying for at least part of the study)

Program Uses Dogs to Help Autistic Kids

By: Susan Rubinowitz

Dr. Francois Martin sought parents who wanted to place their autistic children in a program of therapy sessions with a counselor and a dog. Martin is a doctor of ethology (someone who specializes in studying behavior) who also studied human psychology. He wanted to see if a close rapport with an animal and a therapist would help the children learn to express their feelings and interact spontaneously with another being – socialization traits that are lacking in children stricken by the devastating neurological disorder.

The article goes on to describe the research that is in progress with 12 kids. You can get to it at any of the the links above.

And North Star Foundation has service dogs for autistic children.

Creating a service dog placement for a child with autism differs from creating placements between service dogs and physically challenged adults. From puppy hood on, the philosophy of training the dog and the timetable for placement has to be tailored to the unique needs of the child and move in tandem with the dog's natural development. [more at the link]