Autistic children may benefit from bond with service dogs

By Matthew Stewart
of The Daily Times Staff

Maryville College and Wilderwood Service Dogs have partnered together to study potential benefits autistic children may receive from bonding with service dogs.

Dr. Ariane Schratter, an associate professor of psychology, and several student researchers observed two children and two service dogs over the course of a week-long training camp in May. Researchers will conduct follow-up meetings to record each child’s progress. The project will run for several years and no stop-date has been set.

Anecdotal evidence has documented the benefits of human-animal bonding, and Schratter recalled seeing one very anxious autistic boy whose face lit up when his service dog came into the room.

“Watching that moment was absolutely amazing,” she said. “He smiled for the first time all day. He was smiling and laughing after the dog came in. However, we need more than that (to prove a benefit exists).

“What is the ‘it’ factor? (That is) what we’re trying to get our heads around,” Schratter said. In other words, researchers are looking to explain the role the dog plays in changing the child’s behavior.

“The room and the location had not changed,” Schratter said. “The introduction of the dog was the only thing that changed.”

Quality of life

Researchers will be taking a hard look to see if the human-animal bonding will improve an autistic child’s quality of life. If the study finds the bonding has material gains, researchers then will try to pinpoint why it works.

Undergraduate student researchers at Maryville College are getting the chance to participate in the graduate-level research. Andrew Salpas, a junior, is involved in many aspects of the research including project planning, internal review, filming of subjects, video transcription and data analysis.

“This is an amazing opportunity,” he said. “Students can’t find other opportunities like this out there. I’m very surprised to be involved with so many different facets.”
Salpas has plans to further his psychology education in graduate school.

“I wanted to do research in graduate school, but I had no experience. I didn’t know what it’d be like. Now I’m more comfortable and confident in my ability,” he said. “I had concerns about whether or not I’d like (research psychology) and wondered without any experience how I would know.”

He has, however, found he enjoys the research process.

“I love problem-solving. I love designing something and figuring out what’s the best way to approach a problem,” Salpas said. “It takes effort to set it up and explore beyond a correlation. I just find the process compelling.

‘Groundbreaking’ potential

Maryville College’s research has the potential to be groundbreaking in the field of autism, said Wilderwood Service Dogs President Tiffany Denyer. Few studies have examined the benefits autistic children may receive from service dog interaction, she said.

The nonprofit organization has been open since 2005, and Denyer approached Maryville College faculty members about partnering together for the research study in early 2007.

Wilderwood Service Dogs employees train a dog for more than a year to be able to cater to a specific autistic child’s needs. Many people have asked Denyer how her employees could part paths with the dogs after raising them for a year.

“I tell them to meet one of our families,” she said.

“It’s all about trying to reach children who were previously unreachable,” Denyer said. “We may not be the biggest non-profit out there. We work with one child and one dog at a time. We’re doing a big thing though.

“These families struggle so hard all day long,” she said “We love our dogs, we train our dogs and they sleep with us in our beds. All of that is so insignificant when you see them meet the families (for the first time). You don’t feel you’ve lost anything. We know what we’ve done and what we’ve gained.”