How I Integrated Animal-Assisted Therapy into Practice

As a speech-language pathologist with more than 17 years of experience, I thought I had seen it all. I was starting to wonder, what’s next for me? A specialty? A career change? A facility change? Around this time, we added a bulldog puppy named Teddy to our family. We took him to visit my brother and his family. At that visit, I unknowingly discovered my next path in life. The connection between Teddy and my nephew—recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder—was remarkable. My nephew fell in love with him at first sight. His excitement led to him engaging with us socially—essentially for the first time—using appropriate eye contact and verbal initiation. I’ll never forget his repeated initiations of, “Wheuh Teddy?” and my feelings of amazement and pride in both my nephew and Teddy when I saw their interactions. Teddy became the social bridge connecting my nephew to my family. Shortly after, I enrolled in an online animal-assisted therapy certificate program at the University of Denver. After I earned my certification, I tried—unsuccessfully—to get permission to include therapy dogs in the two public schools (and districts) where I work. I remembered I teach perseverance and thus needed to model it. Motivating learning, reducing anxiety I decided to launch a private practice in Farmington, Connecticut, in 2017. I partner with registered therapy-dog teams—a therapy dog and handler—only for clients I feel would benefit from the animal-assisted treatm...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Audiology Health Care Private Practice Slider Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder Source Type: blogs