Brief Report: Above and Beyond Safety: Psychosocial and Biobehavioral Impact of Autism-Assistance Dogs on Autistic Children and their Families.
Angela Tseng
PMID 34984639WHAT IT FOUND
Parents in 11 families reported lower stress and better child behavior after adding a trained autism service dog to ongoing occupational, speech and language, physical, and applied behavioral analysis therapy, medications, or other treatments.
No control group.
Key findings
01Parent-reported stress and anxiety scores were lower after dog placement: Perceived Stress Scale mean 21.45 before and 17.55 after; Autism Parenting Stress Index mean 21.80 before and 17.40 after; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory state mean 46.36 before and 40.64 after; trait mean 49.64 before and 44.45 after.
02Parent-reported child scores were lower after dog placement: AQ-Child mean 50.91 before and 45.55 after; CBCL Total Problems mean 27.73 before and 19.73 after; SRS-2 Total mean 117.00 before and 108.27 after.
03Chronic cortisol concentrations from hair or nail samples were lower after dog placement in the 6 parents and 5 children with paired samples.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had no control group, so changes cannot be separated from normal development, maturation, or other environmental factors. Families were already receiving occupational, speech and language, physical, and applied behavioral analysis therapy, medications, or other treatments such as assistive technology and adaptive sports; the dog's contribution cannot be separated. The sample was small: 13 families were enrolled and 11 teams were analyzed, and cortisol analyses included only 6 parents and 5 children. Participants were recruited from the top of a 3-5-year waitlist and had already chosen to pursue a dog, so expectations and family circumstances may differ from families who do not seek a service dog. Most outcome measures were parent-report or parent self-report, so response bias is possible. The planned third time point was not completed, so long-term maintenance of changes was not tested. Cortisol sample collection was difficult because some participants had short or no scalp hair, bit their nails, or used steroid medications. Findings apply only to ADI-accredited autism-assistance dogs trained for specific tasks, not to emotional support, therapy, comfort, or companion animals. The study was affected by COVID-19 restrictions, which changed timing and limited some data collection. The authors described the objective as multidimensional impact, not one pre-specified primary outcome, and many questionnaires and subscales were tested.
Declared interests
Can Do Canines provided dogs free-of-charge. Funding came from the Frank J. and Eleanor A. Maslowski Charitable Trust. The supplied text does not report author declarations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the autism-assistance dog caused the improvements. There was no control group, and the children were also receiving occupational, speech and language, physical, and applied behavioral analysis therapy, medications, and other treatments such as assistive technology and adaptive sports. The authors could not rule out maturation, concurrent treatments, or unknown environmental factors.