Difficulties in forming relationships, sustained attention problems, the impression that the child isn’t listening, as well as a lack of interest and little appreciation for calmer activities are some of the possible symptoms to observe or note in certain children. To facilitate the child’s progress, animal-assisted therapy can help these children, whether diagnosed with an attention disorder with or without hyperactivity, or simply children exhibiting similar symptoms to those listed. Let’s look at some examples.
First, let’s address the case of a child who has difficulty forming relationships with others and enjoying calm activities. The appropriately chosen animal will act as a mirror for the patient. Thus, the choice of animal is crucial to achieve the intended goal: allowing the child to form relationships and enjoy a calm activity. Therefore, it will be necessary to select an animal that gets excited quickly but can easily connect and calm down at every opportune moment during the session. As a result, the child will enjoy playing and getting excited with the animal and will follow its thrilling ideas. Then, to establish a relationship, the child will need to realize that their level of excitement must be lowered to connect with the said animal. Over the sessions, the child will learn to manage their energy more easily and understand it better, in order to connect more easily and calmly with the selected animal. It will then be possible to gradually transfer these learnings to the patient’s surrounding relationships.
Subsequently, some children give us the impression that they are not listening or are not attentive. The child may have difficulty grasping the importance of active listening and sustained attention and may struggle to put it into practice. The child’s interactions with the animal can help them better understand these aspects. For example, when the patient needs to interact with the animal to give commands, they will unconsciously seek eye contact, the correct posture, the animal’s distance from them—in short, its general receptiveness. Through this exercise, the child will better understand what is expected of the animal, but more importantly, it will be easier for the child to grasp the elements necessary for quality listening and attention.
In conclusion, it is recognized that a child better controls their attention when the activity is of great interest to them. Since animals are a source of stimulation for many individuals, it is important to use this energy to engage the child in activities and thus create meaningful learning situations. The activities listed above are just a few examples among many others to help young people with attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity disorders. It is also possible to work on several other objectives depending on the patient’s specific needs.
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