Therapy program assisted with therapy dogs for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

TL;DR

A therapy program combining therapy dogs and cognitive behavioral therapy may help children with autism improve emotional regulation and sleep issues.

Contribution

This study explores the combined use of animal-assisted therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for children with ASD.

Findings

Both groups showed improved emotional regulation, but the experimental group improved more significantly.

Significant improvements in sleep disturbances were observed in both groups.

The combination of AAT and CBT shows potential as an intervention strategy for children with ASD.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with an estimated lifetime prevalence of at least 1%. Some studies suggest that approximately 60% of children with ASD show emotional dysregulation and 44-86% sleeping disorders.

Studies suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy and animal-assisted therapy AAT can be an intervention strategy to promote emotional and behavioral dysregulation and sleep disturbances.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a therapy program assisted with dogs (AAT) together with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on behavioral and emotional regulation and sleep disorders in children diagnosed with ASD.

The sample was composed of 24 children between 7 and 10 years old diagnosed with ASD randomized into two groups (CGT group (control group) and AAT + CBT group (experimental group). Inclusion criteria: communication level of simple sentences, mild-moderate difficulties in behavioral and emotional regulation and sleep disturbances. Exclusion criteria: intellectual disability, children with specific dogs phobia. Assessment included ADOS-2, WISC-V, CGAS. dysregulation profile of Achenbach scale and Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children-Bruni. A program of 12 sessions (weekly one-hour sessions) focusing emotional and behavioral regulation and sleep disturbance was designed (Behavior Emotional Sleep Treatment Program. A pre-post evaluation was performed.

Participants were 20 boys and 2 girls (2 participants dropped out), with a mean age of 9. Regarding the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, no significant differences has been observed between both groups in the global functioning measured with the Children’s Global Assessment scale (CGAS) (p=0.832), nor in the cognitive capacity (QI ) neither in reference to the associated comorbidities (p=0.103) nor in the variable prescription pharmacological treatment (p= 0.142). In emotional self-regulation, a significant improvement in emotional regulation difficulties was observed after treatment in both groups (experimental group: p=0.014; control group: p=0.012). However, the comparison between the pre-post intervention results between groups, regarding the emotional regulation variable, a greater improvement is observed in the experimental group (p=0.013). Significant improvements were also observed in sleep disorders (Bruni scale total score and in the sleep conciliation and maintenance difficulties scale) in both groups.

To conclude, although this is a pilot study with a small sample size and further research is needed, results suggest that a therapy program assisted with therapy dogs and CBT have positive effects on emotional dysregulation and sleep disturbances in children with ASD and offers a possible intervention strategy.

None Declared