How Your Pet Can Help Your Child Communicate

Those of us who have pets know, they are a member of the family. Did you know they can also be member of your child's therapeutic team? I would often use my own dog during tele-health sessions. I started during the pandemic, out of sheer desperation. At first, I was enough. I'd mail adapted materials to the families I was working with and we'd use those in conjunction with toys and books they had at home during the sessions. It started off great.

Child feeding dog

Then a few months in and it was getting more challenging to maintain their attention span and parents were getting frustrated, because let's face it, redirection is difficult! I was running out of ideas and one day I just decided to use my dog. This worked for a number of children on my caseload, but Simba became a favorite of one in particular. I was working on following directions and combining one -three words to request with picture symbols with this child and they weren't in the mood to comply. We were also working on weening this child off the tablet, so that was definitely not an option. This particular child had a limited set of interests and we'd exhausted any of the other reinforcers that would usually work, after what felt like only 5 minutes into that session. My dog, Simba, used to sleep right by my feet and so I scooped him up, placed him on my lap said something to the effect of "Oops! It's Simba's snack time." Taking the focus off the child for a moment. I asked Simba to give me a high five for snack and luckily this kiddo got such a kick out of Simba taking a treat of my hand and eating it! The child stopped squirming altogether, focused on me, well on Simba, I just happened to be in the background. I asked Simba to give me another high five for a treat, and the child giggled again. I then asked the child to imitate my directive to Simba, and praised their attempt at getting Simba to follow directions. In this child's case, they were able to produce Puh + ee for "Puppy" and approximate "High-Five"with "Hi+ fai" with models and repetitions. My next step was to bring the original task back in, which in this case was creating one-three word utterances to request a specific animal for a puzzle, with the reinforcer being, you guessed it, Simba! This kiddo was hooked!We ended up squeezing in a shared reading activity with full willingness to participate in the task. Eventually we worked up to the point of using Simba at the end of session alone. I was able to get the child to participate in two to three activities, and I incorporated terminating interactions appropriately + specific sound productions ( " Bye Puppy!", "Take care Puppy." "See you Puppy!") with Simba's assistance. I had to move away from just giving Simba snack, this dog would weigh 200lbs by the end of the IFSP! Although, I did incorporate Simba into a feeding session not long after where I used him a model for crunching. He chews so loudly, it was easily picked up by the microphone, and again the kiddo got such a kick out of it! This child was more willing to try novel foods of a non-preferred textured when they saw Simba chewing vs me or their parent. I was not about to derail sensory feeding progress to save Simba a pound or two on the scale! No no, Simba was fine, I promise. We were using small pieces of carrots, and cucumbers so it was healthy snacking!

Joking aside, it may sound silly, but if you have a pet in the home, these interactions aren't simply fun, they are functional. We talk to our pets, feed them, give them directions throughout the day, say good bye when we leave the house, and hello when we return. For a child who enjoys engaging with their pet, but is non-verbal or has pragmatic language deficits, animals can act as the perfect introduction to appropriate social interactions. There is an established level of comfort, and as I mentioned before, greeting, and giving them directions are a part of everyday life. This provides you with endless opportunities to incorporate scripts and phrases that can then be generalized into other settings and with other communication partners. Animal Assisted Interventions ( AAI) have been studied since the 1960's and have led to the use of therapy dogs with a wide variety of populations ( Gee,2021).

This does not mean go out, adopt a pet and you'll solve all of your child's communication problems. NO! If you have a pet and your child engages with them, great! You have the opportunity to incorporate said pet into a number of learning activities with your child. If you do not, but you see that your child enjoys interacting with a neighbor's or a family members pet, plan activities where they can interact. With the owner's consent of course! It's an option. There are more and more studies being conducted to examine the relationships and learning opportunities between children and animals. It is widely accepted that animals lower stress levels and increase dopamine. Specific activities may even induce increased creativity and concentration as a result of human and dog interactions according to a study by Yoo, et al, in 2024. Do your own research first and then determine if it's the right path for your child and family. Sure they love unconditionally, but because of that, you owe it to them to be a responsible pet owner.

Citations

Gee, N. R., Rodriguez, K. E., Fine, A. H., & Trammell, J. P. (2021). Dogs Supporting Human Health and Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Approach. Frontiers in veterinary science, 8, 630465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.630465

Yoo O, Wu Y, Han JS, Park S-A (2024) Psychophysiological and emotional effects of human–Dog interactions by activity type: An electroencephalogram study. PLoS ONE 19(3): e0298384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298384