Browsing by Author "Holappa, Mervi"

Animal-assisted interventions aim to enhance human health, wellbeing and quality of life. The goal is to support and improve physical, psychical and social competence of an individual. Animal-assisted interventions have gained interest in Finland and the methods involving a therapy animal have been commonly utilized in psychotherapy as well as in physiotherapy. Interestingly, speech therapists are also interested in incorporating animals, especially dogs, into different speech therapy processes. In fact, there are already several Finnish speech therapists who offer canine-assisted speech therapy to their clients. The aim of this study is to review pros and cons of utilizing animal-assisted intervention methods in autism speech therapy. The study focuses especially on social interaction difficulties typically manifested in children with autism spectrum disorder. Systematic retrieval of literature was conducted by using keywords, such as animal-assisted therapy, canine, dog, autism spectrum disorder, communication, social, and their combinations. Altogether seven scientific articles were selected for further investigation. Content of these selected publications was analyzed qualitatively. The thesis aims to answer whether canine-assisted intervention methods can support autism speech therapy process and what kind of effects canine-assisted interventions have been reported to have on children with autism spectrum disorder. Canine-assisted interventions have shown potential as beneficial occupational therapy method for children with autism. Canine-assisted interventions increased social interaction among children with autism spectrum disorder. Positive changes were also observed in prosocial behavior as well as in verbal communication. A therapy dog was seen as a motivator and social catalyst that made situations requiring social interaction more pleasant thus explaining the positive changes seen in autistic children. These observed positive changes in autistic children in the presence of a therapy dog support the idea that, when applied properly, canine-assisted therapy methods could in fact enhance therapy progress and help autistic children reach the specific goals set for therapy. Although practical experiences may support the use of a dog in speech therapy, more research from logopedic point of view is needed so that the use, efficiency and benefits of animal-assisted intervention methods in speech therapy could be based on research.