Pets May Help Kids With Autism Develop Social Skills

Study found if animal came into home after child was born, communication improved

By Amanda Gardner | HealthDay Reporter

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...  READ MORE >>

More informationThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on autism spectrum disorders.
Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat | FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Teaching Children With Autism to Imitate Others May Improve Social Skills

ScienceDaily — Teaching young children with autism to imitate others may improve a broader range of social skills, according to a new study by a Michigan State University scholar.

The findings come at a pivotal time in autism research. In the past several years, researchers have begun to detect behaviors and symptoms of autism that could make earlier diagnosis and even intervention like this possible, said Brooke Ingersoll, MSU assistant professor of psychology.

"It's pretty exciting," Ingersoll said. "I think we, as a field, are getting a much better idea of what autism looks like in infants and toddlers than we did even five years ago."

In the current study, Ingersoll found that toddlers and preschoolers with autism who were taught imitation skills made more attempts to draw the examiner's attention to an object through gestures and eye contact, a key area of deficit in autism.

Imitation is an important development skill that allows infants and young children to interact and learn from others. However, children with autism often show a lack of ability to imitate.

Teaching autistic teens to cope

Full story: Medicalxpress
Teenagers with autism spectrum disorder are in a bind. The disorder is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, but it's a continuum, so some teens diagnosed with ASD are considered high functioning and healthy enough to be "mainstreamed" in school.

But without the proper social skills, even mainstreamed teens don't quite fit into the general social milieu of middle school or high school. As a result, they suffer from all the slings and arrows of that world.

Since 2006, however, the UCLA PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) clinic has assisted high-functioning teens with ASD by literally teaching them the strategies they need to fit in better with their peers. And while previous research demonstrated that the program was effective, it wasn't known whether the new skills "stuck" with these teens after they completed...

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Related Stories

• Teaching autistic teens to make friends 
• Teens who express own views with mom resist peer pressures best 
• Training peers improves social outcomes for some kids with ASD
• Teens with autism face major obstacles to social life outside of school, study finds
• Teens use peers as gauge in search for autonomy

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net