Effects of Canines on Physical Activity of Children With Autism

Background/Purpose: Participation in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is important for a child's health. However, research shows children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not engage in sufficient amounts of MVPA (Pan & Frey, 2006). Most barriers to MVPA in this population are related to intrapersonal and interpersonal factors. Although preliminary findings (Obrusnikova, Cavalier, & Bibik, 2011) suggest that the presence of a therapy dog during exercise can provide motivation for children with ASD to participate in MVPA, it is still unknown whether the presence of a therapy dog is more effective than the presence of a peer. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory case study was to compare the effects of the presence of a therapy dog during structured exercise with the presence of a peer using an alternating treatment design. Method: A purposive sample of four boys with Asperger Syndrome, ages 9-11 years, were recruited from a community agency. The intervention for both conditions was framed using the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1997) consisting of four components: (a) vicarious social experiences, (b) direct social experiences, (c) vicarious PA instruction, and (d) direct PA instruction.  The exercise consisted of four fitness stations and two skill stations. The dependent variables were measured by the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (McKenzie et al., Sallis, & Nader, 1991) and The Academic Learning Time-Physical Education (Siedentop, Tousignant, & Parker, 1982). Analysis/Results: The results show that regardless of the order of the intervention, the MVPA gains (M gain = .62) and the on-task behavior gains (M gain = 3.52) were larger for the therapy-dog condition compared to the peer condition. These findings were confirmed in semi-structured individual interviews with the children’s parents and instructors. Conclusions: The study indicates that for the four participants, the presence of a therapy dog was more motivational during exercise compared to the presence of a peer.