Browsing by Subject "operantti ehdollistuminen"

Goals. The purpose of this study was to find out, if there exists an effect on a pupil's attention as an assistance dog is working in a classroom or not. Also the direction of the possible effect was to be studied. Research questions arose from the practical needs as the use of assistance dogs has been increasing lately in Finnish schools. There was no earlier studies to be found from this particular subject, so there was a need for this study also on the theoretical side. Although there was no studies to be found according the connection of using an assistance dog and the child's attention, there was plenty of studies that pointed out that the presence of a dog has a calming and stress-relieving affect on a client. These results could be assumed to have an affect on ability of regulating an attention. The working hypothesis of this study was that using an assistance dog has a slight positive correlation with the ability of regulating an attention. Methods. The material used in this study were video recordings from a classroom of autistic children and children with autistic character. There was a trained assistance dog working in this classroom. The material was received from Iris Vainio, whom recorded the material precisely for her master's thesis. One eight-year-old pupil was targeted as the case to be studied. The effects of the presence of the dog were the most explicit with this boy. This boy had multiple diagnosis, among other things Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His environment of studies was the classroom for autistic children. Analysis of the material was realised through inductive video observation and thematised classification of the perceptions. Results. Using an assistance dog in the classroom had both positive and negative affects though mostly positive. The dog had an calming affect on otherwise very restless child and the dog helped him to direct his attention to the relevant things. The dog also clearly made the ambiance more relaxed for the whole class. Negative affect was that in some circumstances the dog may direct attention to the irrelevant things. Using and assistance dog in a class of autistic students is pedagogically justified because it improves the environment for studying.