Kynotherapy project: form of intervention in the needs of special health

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction as well as by restricted patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. In kynotherapy, a dog it acts as a facilitator of the therapeutic process. This pilot-project has as main objective to study the effectiveness of the kynotherapy in the improvement of the behaviors of self-regulation, communication and socialization of children with ASD, in a school context. Of the pilot project, 16 children with a diagnosis of ASD, were evaluated in a pre and post-intervention phase. In the control group the educational method of the Structured Teaching is the Treatment and Educacion of Autistic and Related Communications Handicapped Children (TEACH) model and in the experimental group the educational method is the same, however with there is the support of a dog during the 40 sessions, that have the duration of 30 minutes. In the experimental group, it is expected significant improvements in the measures of irritability and hyperactivity, as well as in the processes of socialization, social cognition and social communication.

Keywords

• perturbação do espectro do autismo
• cinoterapia
• comunicação
• socialização
• autorregulação