New research suggests children with autism who live with pets in their home tend to have stronger social skills.
Past research has shown that dogs and other pets can act as catalysts in social interactions for most individuals, and these new findings show the effect is also prominent in children with autism, the University of Missouri-Columbia reported.
"When I compared the social skills of children with autism who lived with dogs to those who did not, the children with dogs appeared to have greater social skills," said Gretchen Carlisle, research fellow at the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. "More significantly, however, the data revealed that children with any kind of pet in the home reported being more likely to engage in behaviors such as introducing themselves, asking for information or responding to other people's questions. These kinds of social skills typically are difficult for kids with autism, but this study showed children's assertiveness was greater if they lived with a pet."
When pets are present in social settings or classrooms, they have been found to influence children to have more interactions with each other. The recent study shows animals can also influence assertiveness in autistic children.
"When children with disabilities take their service dogs out in public, other kids stop and engage," Carlisle said. "Kids with autism don't always readily engage with others, but if there's a pet in the home that the child is bonded with and a visitor starts asking about the pet, the child may be more likely to respond."
The researchers found that the longer a family of an autistic child has owned an animal, the stronger the effect was in the child. Older autistic children tended to report weaker bonds with their dogs than younger children, and there appeared to be stronger attachments to smaller dogs.
To make their findings, the researchers surveyed 70 familes who had children with autism between the ages of 8 and 18 who were patients of MU Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. About 70 percent of the families that participated in the study owned dogs, and about half had cats.
"Dogs are good for some kids with autism but might not be the best option for every child," Carlisle said. "Kids with autism are highly individual and unique, so some other animals may provide just as much benefit as dogs. Though parents may assume having dogs are best to help their children, my data show greater social skills for children with autism who live in homes with any type of pet."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
