Abstract
As autism rates continue to rise, so does the need for new and effective treatments. Animal assisted therapy (AAT) has been used in the treatment of various mental health diagnoses (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia (Mims & Waddell, 2016; London et al., 2020; Schuck et al., 2013). Reported benefits of participating in AAT include: decreased stress and improved morale, lower self-reported emotional pain, increased communication, improved self-esteem, decreased positive psychiatric symptoms, decreased anxiety and depression, and increased socialization (Wu et al., 2002; Sobo et al., 2006; Macauley, 2006). While there is promising value in animal assisted therapy, there remains a lack of research in both identifying and defining the best practice techniques, specifically in its application to working with autistic children on their social functioning. The goal of my dissertation and accompanying toolkit was to help guide clinical decisions when working on social functioning challenges in children with autism. Counseling theoretical orientations were explored and then paired with 18 commonly used AAT techniques, which were identified by O’Callaghan (2008). The 18 AAT techniques were then paired with various social functioning components (e.g., social pragmatics, speech prosody, tendency to dwell on certain topics, difficulty understanding and expressing emotions, and interpreting nonliteral language; Williams et al., 2007). To evaluate the applicability and accuracy of my AAT technique toolkit, I obtained feedback from Pet Partners clinicians, which is a nationally recognized animal assisted therapy organization. As a whole, the toolkit was rated favorably as a resource, as well as in terms of aiding clinician decision making. Based on the toolkit’s evaluation, theoretical implications include support for attachment and social support theories and the biophilia hypothesis. Practical implications based on this toolkit’s evaluation include the benefit from having examples of how to utilize the therapy animal to meet treatment objectives and to address maladaptive externalizing behaviors. Research limitations include limited generalizability and only exploring AAT effects on one mental health condition (i.e., autism). Ethical and cultural considerations are also discussed for both autism research and treatment.