AAT

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) involves animals, most often dogs, in the therapy process. It is a goal-directed intervention in which an animal is an integral part of the treatment process.

For many young people with speech and language difficulties, therapy can be a challenge. A therapy dog can provide motivation, increase willingness to communicate, be a listening ear, and bring a smile to the face of individuals who are working hard to achieve their speech and language goals. AAT is a great way to get people talking, moving and learning.  Current research supports the use of AAT to increase communication. “The presence of a therapy dog is beneficial to learning, but may be particularly beneficial to language-impaired children (Wilson 2016)

Having a dog present during a session can be a naturalistic inspiration for language goals such as verbs (e.g. talking about what the dog is doing), vocabulary, grammar (e.g. pronouns, past tense, future tense), and sentence structure. 

AAT can provide opportunities to teach social skills such as emotions, cause and effect, taking turns, consequences, observing and interpreting body language. It is also great for teaching higher-order language and executive functioning skills, e.g. children can come up with a plan to teach the dog a new trick, or talk about the steps in what a dog needs to do for an obstacle course.

A canine co-therapist can provide motivate children to accomplish tasks by demonstrating concepts such as how to teach things, how to learn new things, and how to deal with disappointment and failure. AAT is also great for teaching everyday skills e.g. caring for pets, patience, compassion and emotional regulation.

Since AAT is goal-directed, the activities vary based on each client’s therapy goals. Keep in mind that the dog is not doing therapy. The Speech Pathologist is doing therapy, with the participation of the dog.