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Raúl García Hémonnet/Editor
The Office of Assisted Intervention with Animals (OIAA) of the Rey Juan Carlos University has been developing for a few days an assisted intervention with therapy dogs, directed by professionals, with the aim of improving physical functionality, reducing the risk of falls and improving the communication of adults with ASD who participate.
“Working with dogs can facilitate carrying out the proposed activities
the achievement of the objectives, having observed that usually people
with ASD present a positive response to the presence of therapy dogs”, they point out from the OIAA.
The program has a duration of 20 weeks, with a weekly half-hour session. Evaluations of communicative variables, as well as of walking and going up and down stairs at different times of the study, are carried out to see the evolution of the participants. The study takes place between the months of April and June. It is directed by Beatriz Rivera, professor of Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University.
The objective of the research is to obtain conclusive data about the percentage of improvement observed in people with ASD who receive Animal Assisted Therapy, specifically in the aspects focused on fall prevention and improvement in communication. The title of the study is 'Prevention of falls and improvement of communication in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through Animal Assisted Therapy'.
The conclusions of the study will make it possible to discern whether the animal-assisted intervention manages to improve the way of walking or going up and down stairs, as well as the balance of people with ASD. Since different studies have shown that there are different gait disturbances in people with ASD as well as changes in posture in people with intellectual disabilities (which could increase the risk of falling, especially as premature aging could reduce the functional capacity.
Collaboration between institutions
Israel González García, director of the Office of Assisted Interventions with Animals at the Rey Juan Carlos University, explains “dogs facilitate the learning of the necessary skills to achieve adaptive functioning in the environment, promoting participation and autonomy in the basic activities of daily life. Thanks to peer-to-peer communication, non-verbal communication that occurs between the person and the dog, since the dog does not pigeonhole the person”.
For his part, the director of the Madrid Autism Federation, Luis Pradillos, highlights "from the Federation we are very proud to be able to implement this project, from our Collaborative Social Network service, making this collaboration between our entities available to people with autism and the Rey Juan Carlos University because many times these initiatives are usually aimed at minors with ASD but we consider that it is very important and necessary to be able to implement it with adults and we are convinced that the results of the research will allow the project to be replicated in more people with autism , contributing, in this way, to improve their quality of life»
The study is carried out within the framework of the collaboration agreement that the URJC has with the Madrid Autism Federation and has the collaboration of the APNA Association, the New Horizon Association and Animal Nature.