In earlier blog posts we touched upon animal assisted therapy for autism and have even reported a time or two about service dogs and the individuals they assist.
As an ongoing look at the benefits of animal assisted therapies, we would like to touch upon in a little more detail the some of the techniques and tasks Autism Service Dogs can be taught in order to assist a child with Autism.
There are many common tasks these four-legged companions utilize in their day-to-day services they provide ranging from being trained to track a child’s scent, should the child become lost to tethering & anchoring to prevent a child from suddenly bolting off into traffic or wandering off in a crowd to having the ability to detect gluten, a filled diaper, or even stop repetitive behaviors.
But did you know they are also taught to utilize Deep Pressure Therapy? Studies have shown that deep pressure therapy and massages is a successful way to manage issues that might trigger stress by soothing the individual calming their meltdowns, and other behavioral outburst enabling them to re-focus and transition.
The dog is trained to use their body weight to lean into or provide compression to the child’s or individual’s joints.
It is pretty amazing because over time as the dog and child develop a bond, the dog can start to sense an impending meltdown long before it escalates and becomes a crisis. In most cases, the anxiety and/or meltdown is lessened or completely diminished before it even has a chance to accelerate because the dog senses child’s stress level and offers the relief of deep pressure.
Most parents report once their child begins dog therapy with an autism service dog trained in deep pressure techniques, they see a significant decrease in behavioral issues. Some even find tantrums and outbursts stop all together.
Deep Pressure Therapy is just another truly miraculous way autism services dogs are proving to be man’s best friend and showing the positive benefits of animal assisted therapy for autism and related spectrum issues.
To read more about animal assisted therapy, please visit http://blog.hear-our-voices.org/category/therapy-2/