How Animals Help Children With Special Needs

Horses and Dolphins and Dogs, Oh My!

Animal-Assisted Therapy Provides a Unique Support and Inspiration to Kids with Disabilities

Kids and animals are natural companions. For children with disabilities, that companionship can also include invaluable physical and emotional therapy. Whether it’s strengthening muscles through horseback riding, feeling motivated to improve while swimming with dolphins or gaining confidence with the help and companionship of a service dog, kids with disabilities can benefit from many different kinds of animals.

Animals offer all children the chance to connect to another living being, says Adrian Sandler, M.D., head of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Children with Disabilities. But for kids with disabilities, animals can also provide invaluable therapy, he says. Riding a horse, for example, can help a child physically strengthen his or her muscles while also serving as recreation that builds self-esteem.

"Mastering something new is great for children with disabilities," Sandler says.

"A variety of programs nationwide use animals to assist children with chronic illness and disabilities," notes Maryellen Elcock, Ph.D., director of animal-assisted therapy services for the Delta Society, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve human health through service and therapy animals. Delta’s Pet Partners program alone involves more than 6,000 individuals and organizations that connect people with chronic illness or disabilities to therapy animals.

Although there are no comprehensive national statistics, there’s no doubt that the number of programs that use animals to work with children with disabilities is growing. And some of these programs are producing interesting and promising results, Sandler says. But he emphasizes that the biggest benefit is the relationship children develop with the animals. They become comfortable with them, and they learn the responsibility of caring for another living being.

Service dogs are perhaps the animals most associated with helping disabled people, but horses and dolphins are also used to help children in a multitude of ways. All three animals provide physical therapy benefits, as well as motivation and confidence for the kids involved.

"In terms of therapy associated with different disabilities," Elcock says, "the presence of an animal may make sessions more pleasurable and productive and, therefore, improve therapeutic outcomes."