In the past, there have been studies that dogs help children with autism to stabilize, and many children with autism will also be accompanied by service dogs when they go out, thereby alleviating anxiety. Now an American study found that in addition...
In the past, there have been studies that dogs help children with autism to stabilize, and many children with autism will also be accompanied by service dogs when they go out, thereby alleviating anxiety. Now an American study found that in addition to the benefits of dogs for autistic children, adopting cats is also of many benefits. It not only improves children's social skills and increases empathy, but also reduces children's separation anxiety! The research team found 11 families with autistic children aged 6 to 14 in the family, four of which adopted a cat from the shelter at the beginning of the study. The research team conducted 18 weeks of follow-up observations, and the rest of the families were simply followed during the initial 18 weeks, and then adopted the cat and followed for an additional 18 weeks.
In the end, all families adopted cats, and these cats were screened to ensure that their personality was relatively stable and calm. The research team conducted a survey every 6 weeks to evaluate children's social skills and anxiety levels, as well as the relationship between parents and children and new pets. It turned out that children with autism not only improved in social skills, but children, parents and cats all established firm relationships, and continued to deepen over time. In addition, children with developmental disorders with autism showed more empathy after their pet cats entered the family, while negative conditions such as problematic behavior, separation anxiety, overactivity, and inattention were significantly reduced.
Research author Gretchen Carlisle worked as a nurse at Columbia Public Schools. At that time, he found that introducing pet dogs, guinea pigs and other animals could effectively stabilize special education students, which inspired his interest in human-animal interaction research. Now Gretchen is a researcher at the Center for Human and Animal Interaction Research at the Missouri State University School of Veterinary Medicine, specializing in the benefits of companion animals for families.
Speaking of this finding, experts said: "Previous research focused on the interaction between dogs and children with autism, but not all children and families are suitable for dogs, especially some children with autism are quite sensitive to sound. I think my research will encourage more families to consider raising cats and help more shelter cats find warm homes." Gretchen said: "As a former pediatric nurse, I have been working hard to help children. One of the things I learned is that you need to involve parents so that they can make wise choices for their children. I think raising pets is a healthy, friendly and gentle way to help these families in a timely manner. I feel really relieved to see the changes in the children." Experts pointed out that the scope of research will be expanded in the future, conduct larger research, and deeply understand the impact of pet cats on children with autism.
