does pet arrival trigger prosocial behaviors in individuals with autism做宠物的到来引发亲社会行为在自闭症患者.pdfVIP

Does Pet Arrival Trigger Prosocial Behaviors in Individuals with Autism? 1,2 3 1 1 4 Marine Grandgeorge *, Sylvie Tordjman , Alain Lazartigues , Eric Lemonnier , Michel Deleau , Martine Hausberger2 ˆ 1 CHRU de Brest, Hopital de Bohars, Centre de Ressources Autisme, Bohars, France, 2 UMR-CNRS 6552, Laboratoire Ethologie Animale et Humaine, Rennes, France, 3 CHRU ´ Guillaume Regnier, Rennes, France, 4 Centre de recherches en psychologie, cognition et communication, Rennes, France Abstract Alteration of social interactions especially prosocial behaviors – an important aspect of development – is one of the characteristics of autistic disorders. Numerous strategies or therapies are used to improve communication skills or at least to reduce social impairments. Animal-assisted therapies are used widely but their relevant benefits have never been scientifically evaluated. In the present study, we evaluated the association between the presence or the arrival of pets in families with an individual with autism and the changes in his or her prosocial behaviors. Of 260 individuals with autism - on the basis of presence or absence of pets - two groups of 12 individuals and two groups of 8 individuals were assigned to: study 1 (pet arrival after age of 5 versus no pet) and study 2 (pet versus no pet), respectively. Evaluation of social impairment was assessed at two time periods using the 36-items ADI-R algorithm and a parental questionnaire about their child-pet relationships. The results showed that 2 of the 36 items changed positively between the age of 4 to 5 (t0) and time of assessment (t1) in the pet arrival group (study 1): ‘‘offe