Advancing Methods in Animal-Assisted Intervention: Demonstration of Starting Points in Clinical Practice for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
A thirty-second picture choice test tells you whether the therapy dog will work as a reinforcer for a child with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Clay et al. (2023) ran a quick paired-stimulus test with kids with autism.
They showed two pictures at a time: a therapy dog versus other items.
The team then checked if the kids’ choices predicted whether time with the dog would later make the kids work harder.
What they found
One third of the kids picked the dog every time.
One third picked it sometimes.
One third rarely picked it.
For five of the six kids, the dog only worked as a reinforcer when the child had first shown high or moderate preference.
How this fits with other research
Protopopova et al. (2020) already showed that two-minute dog breaks can boost schoolwork, but they never screened for who liked the dog first.
Clay’s team adds the missing step: run a thirty-second preference test before you promise the dog as a prize.
Morris et al. (2021) did the same kind of quick screen for social praise and found that social interaction is neutral or even aversive for many kids.
Clay’s pattern with the dog looks almost identical—some kids love it, some don’t, and you can’t guess by looking at them.
Why it matters
You now have a fast, visual way to check if the therapy dog will actually reinforce behavior.
No more guessing and watching your reinforcement fall flat.
Next time the school brings in a handler, spend five minutes doing Clay’s paired-stimulus test.
Only kids who pick the dog picture get dog time as a reward.
Everyone else gets the items they actually preferred.
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Join Free →Before the handler arrives, hold up two index cards—dog photo versus favorite toy—and let the child pick; only kids who pick the dog earn dog time.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Therapy animals have been frequently included in interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, direct and systematic procedures such as assessing preference for and reinforcing efficacy of the animals are rarely conducted. Assessing preference for stimuli is valuable when determining how to make interventions for children with ASD most effective. We conducted paired-stimulus preference assessments and follow-up reinforcer assessments to determine if a therapy dog might be an effective reinforcer. We found one third of participants preferred the dog the least, one third of participants moderately preferred the dog, and one third of participants highly preferred the dog relative to other stimuli. Furthermore, we found preference predicted reinforcing efficacy for five of six participants. We suggest clinicians systematically conduct assessments to clearly identify the role of the therapy animal, to improve quality of, and demonstrate efficacy of interventions including animals for clinical populations.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s40617-022-00704-w