An Observational Study on Canine-assisted Play Therapy for Children with Autism: Move towards the Phrase of Manualization and Protocol Development

Abstract

Canine-assisted play therapy (CAPT) is an emerging psychosocial intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present case studies used quantitative observation of experimenter-designated behavioral outcomes to examine the effectiveness of a planned CAPT intervention. By utilizing a coding system with typical and ASD-specific behavioral categories, the verbal and non-verbal social behaviors of two elementary-aged children with ASD as well as intellectual and language impairments at pre-treatment, during CAPT treatment, at post-treatment and at follow-up are systematically coded and analyzed. This study took the first steps toward making CAPT treatment manuals and research protocol available to a wider audience. Their publication will assist in standardizing the technique for replication in research and in practice.