Study on the effects of animals assisted therapy in children with neuromotor deficits

Abstract

The researched problem. Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) addresses the physical, cognitive, behavioral, psycho-social, emotional and language aspects of different subject categories of different ages and various physical, neuromotor, psychic, deficiencies, etc. as a result of interacting with animals. AAT can be performed individually or in a group, and the benefits to the physical domain are directed to fine and thick motricity and to improved balance and postural control. The purpose of the study. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapeutic program to assisted with horses and dogs in order to improve the static and dynamic balance of children with neuromotor deficiencies. Organization and methods of research. The study was conducted over during 3 months, on two groups of 7 subjects with neuromotor deficiencies aged 5-7 years. The experimental group followed a combined program of dog-and-horse-assisted therapy and the control group only the therapy program assisted by dogs. In the study we applied two variants of the Tinetti test from sitting and orthostatism. The results were processed in SPSS 22, targeting the following statistical indicators: mean (X), standard deviation (SD), Z score, effect size (d), for p <0.05. For comparative analysis between groups we used the t-Student and Wilcoxon paired test. Analysis and study results. The difference between groups for the Tinetti test from sitting: were: for experimental group M ± SD 1.23 ± 1.23 and d = 0.98 revealed a broad effect, and for the control group M ± SD 0.61 ± 1.12 and d = 0.54 revealing an average effect. For the Tinetti test from orthostatism, the balance evaluation reveled the folowing results: for experiment group M ± SD 1.40 ± 1.19, d = 1.17 reflecting a broad effect, and for the control group M ± SD 0.06 ± 0.88; d = 0.07 the effect being very small. The results of study for both tests revealed the effectiveness of the combined program applied to the experimental group, the progress being statistically significant between the two tests for p <0.05. Conclusions and practical-methodical recommendations. When combining horse and dog therapies, better values could be obtained in order to rehabilitate the balance in children with neuromotor deficiencies compared to the application of dog-assisted therapy alone. Future studies could target other ways of combining therapy programs, including other animals, in order to optimize other motor and psychomotor skills of children.