Dr Vanessa Wilson Vanessa.Wilson@hull.ac.uk
Lecturer
Animal-assisted therapy has progressed in recent years, helping a broad spectrum of people to tackle stress, loneliness and health problems, including those with life-long disabilities. For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), animal-assisted therapy helps with social functioning and communication. Whilst numerous articles document the human benefits, far fewer studies have addressed the benefits, or costs, to the therapists themselves —– the animals. Whilst some studies indicate that humans and animals may mutually benefit from positive social interactions, we are yet to fully understand the mechanisms that regulate the social and behavioural outcomes of human-animal interactions under animal-assisted therapy, or its effects on the therapy animal. In this article, I discuss the benefits of examining the physiological and endocrinological mechanisms that underlie such interactions, and why it is important to understand the effects on both nonhumans and humans alike, focusing on
animal-assisted therapy for children with ASD. I address species suitability and animal handling experience, and discuss an individualised approach that suits both child and animal, by considering patient needs and animal temperament. Together, these points allow us to reduce the potential of stress in therapy animals, improve the impact of animal-assisted therapy on recipients, and move towards a human-animal interaction that is mutually beneficial.
Wilson, V. (2018). Costs, benefits and mechanisms of animalassisted therapy: adopting a change in perspective. Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 17(4),
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Sep 1, 2018 |
Publication Date | Jan 1, 2018 |
Deposit Date | Oct 3, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Oct 8, 2024 |
Journal | Scottish Journal of Residential Childcare |
Electronic ISSN | 2976-9353 |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 17 |
Issue | 4 |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4860474 |
Published article
(269 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Copyright Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Happiness is positive welfare in brown capuchins (Sapajus apella)
(2016)
Journal Article
A universal preference for animate agents in hominids
(2024)
Journal Article
About Repository@Hull
Administrator e-mail: repository@hull.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search