Pets May Help Kids With Autism Develop Social Skills

HealthDay – 2 hrs 57 mins ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Introducing a pet into the home of a child with autism may help that child develop improved social behaviors, new research finds.

The study, from French researchers, is the first strong scientific evidence that animals may help foster social skills in individuals with autism, but it also reinforces what clinicians have been hearing anecdotally for years.

"We hear from parents a lot that having a pet or interacting with an animal really helps their child's social behavior, but there hasn't been a study so far that has looked at that scientifically," said Alycia Halladay, director of environmental research at Autism Speaks. "This offers some intriguing evidence to confirm what parents have been saying."

Halladay was not involved with the study, which was published online Aug. 1 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Problems with communication are one of the hallmarks of autism and strategies to combat this are central to autism therapy.

According to Halladay, some people with autism use service dogs but usually to address a particular handicap, such as problems with motor coordination or hearing loss, although not yet for social skills.

Previous studies have verified that having a pet in the house actually improves family bonding and can improve the social skills of a non-autistic child as he or she learns to share with the pet and care for it.

To see if pets might have the same effect in children with autism, the study authors compared the children's social interactions (as reported by the parents of the children with autism) in three different settings: households that had never had a pet; homes that had had a pet since the child's birth; and households that had acquired a pet after the child turned 5.

In total, 260 individuals with autism were involved and the researchers were most interested in social interactions when the child was 4 or 5 years of age, because this is when the social impairments are often at a peak.

Out of 36 measures, participants who had acquired a pet after they were born scored higher in the two categories of "offering to share" and "offering comfort" after having the pet for a few years.

There was no relationship between each individual's IQ and the impact of the pet, leading the authors to conclude that "the benefits that the animals may have on individuals with autism don't seem related to how serious the autism was," said study author Marine Grandgeorge, clinical research associate at the Autism Resource Center of Academic Hospital in Brest, France.

Pets may promote pro-social behavior by acting as "distracters," Grandgeorge suggested.

"When a human is in a stressful situation, a pet seems to distract him/her from the

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ISC Medical Comments on Health and Social Care Bill

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Apr
2012One of the country's leading providers of medical interviews and interview skills consultancy services, ISC Medical, comments on the Health and Social Care Bill.

(1888PressRelease) April 05, 2012 - One of the country's leading providers of medical interviews and interview skills consultancy services, ISC Medical, comments on the Health and Social Care Bill, which received Royal Assent on the 27th of March 2012.

After much negotiation, the Health and Social Care Bill has now been passed into law, despite strong opposition from a number of doctors. The Bill formally introduces a range of new reforms, including increased competition with the health service - though this is meant to be on the basis of quality rather than price, the right for external providers to enter the marketplace, and a transfer of commissioning powers to GPs.

The reforms attracted controversy and conflicting opinions from within the profession, ranging from outright refusal (e.g. by the British Medical Association and the Royal College of GPs, though the latter later re-entered the negotiation table) to the more constructive approach adopted by the Royal College of Surgeons.

Olivier Picard, MD of ISC Medical, commented: "The long-term impact of the Bill is unknown and much of the controversy that it attracted can only be based on speculation. However, one thing is clear: many doctors and healthcare professionals are worried about the fact that they have little understanding of what the Bill means for them exactly.

"We invite any Registrars, SpRs, SAS doctors, Consultants, GPs, Senior Nurses and NHS Managers interested in exploring the Bill further to attend our NHS issues course, where you can learn in more depth about the impact that current reforms are likely to have on the different players and stakeholders that form the NHS."

For more information about ISC Medical's medical courses, visit http://www.medical-interviews.co.uk/ or call 0845 226 9487 between 8:30am and 8:30pm.

About ISC Medical:
ISC Medical is one of the UK's longest-established companies specialising in medical interview courses, medical CV writing, and medical personal development courses, including teach the teacher courses, for all grades medical school entry, FY, CT/ST, GPST, consultants, and GP posts. They provide a personal service and insist on running all courses in smaller groups, enabling their trainers to accommodate for the individual needs of each client.

Contact:
Olivier Picard
Interview Skills Consulting Ltd,
97 Judd Street,
London, UK
Zip: WC1H 9JG
Tel: 0845 226 9487
Email: enquiries (

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