Therapy Dogs Reduce Stress in Autistic Children
A new study by researchers at the University of Montreal published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology reveals that autistic children who are exposed to the presence of a therapy dog have reduced stress levels.
“Our findings showed that the dogs had a clear impact on the children’s stress hormone levels,” says Sonia Lupien, senior researcher and a professor at the Université de Montréal Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress at Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital. “I have not seen such a dramatic effect before.”
To measure stress, researchers looked at cortisol levels in the children. Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the body in response to stress. It peaks a half-hour after waking up - known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR) - and decreases throughout the day. Moreover, it is detectable in the saliva, which makes sampling its levels easy.
The researchers measured the CAR of 42 children with ASD. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire addressing the behaviors of their children before, during and after the introduction of the dog. On average, parents counted 33 problematic behaviors prior to living with the dog, and only 25 while living with the animal. Before the introduction of service dogs, we measured a 58% increase in morning cortisol after awakening, which diminished to 10% when service dogs were present. The increase in morning cortisol jumped back to 48% once the dogs were removed from the families (p<0.05).
These findings show that the use of therapy dogs for autistic children may be an effective way to decrease their anxiety and behavioral issues.
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I very much enjoyed reading this article - it is good to see that, after years of Therapy Dogs working to better the lives of people, there are now scientific studies being done on the exact benefits these dogs provide.
What disturbs me, however, is that your author is using the terms Therapy Dog and Service Dog as if they are interchangeable. They most certainly are not.
A Therapy Dog is the personal pet of the handler and has been chosen due to his/her temperament to provide comfort and medical benefits to people in need - by visiting hospitals and working in other programs. Therapy Dogs are certified through a national or local organization and only allowed in places where normal pets are not allowed during actual, scheduled visits.
A Service Dog is the "adaptive equipment" that allows a disabled person to do things most of us take for granted. Service Dogs are always trained specific tasks to do for their disabled handler (and providing comfort or being able to be petted are NOT considered trained tasks), and are allowed everywhere their handler goes, including places where other dogs are not allowed.
Disabled people with Service Dogs have a difficult enough time accessing the public places they need to go without additional confusion between the terms Service Dogs and Therapy Dogs, which are created by articles such as yours.