Assessing Preferences for Animals in Children with Autism: A New Use for Video-Based Preference Assessment
Let non-verbal kids with autism choose their therapy animal through a quick video MSWO before any live introduction.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Guérin et al. (2017) wrote a how-to paper. They asked, "What if we let non-verbal kids with autism pick the therapy animal themselves?"
The team sketched a plan: film short clips of dogs, cats, rabbits and horses. Show the videos on a tablet. Use an MSWO layout so the child can touch the animal they like.
No kids were tested yet. The paper is a road map for future research.
What they found
The authors did not collect data, so there is no result to report.
They simply argue that video-based MSWO could give a voice to children who cannot speak.
How this fits with other research
Wolfe et al. (2018) already tried video preference tests with three autistic children. Two kids’ video picks matched the real reinforcer test; one child did not. Their warning: always run a quick reinforcer check after the video round.
Kronfli et al. (2024) used the same MSWO layout, but with conversation topics instead of animals. They showed the method works when you can watch the child approach the item in real time.
Together these studies turn Guérin’s idea into a recipe: use video MSWO to narrow choices, then let the child meet the top animal before the final pick.
Why it matters
If you run animal-assisted sessions, you can start Monday. Film 30-second clips of each animal on your phone. Load them into an MSWO app and let the child tap. Take the top two winners to a live meet-and-greet and watch which one the child moves toward. You just turned guess-work into data.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The inclusion of animals into interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a growing practice known as animal-assisted intervention (AAI). The choice of the animal to include in an intervention is often solely up to the interventionist and depends on their experience, subjective judgment, and ease of access to different animals. For individuals with ASD who are non-verbal and unable to indicate preferred stimuli or activities, incorporating preference into interventions has been linked to increases in positive behaviors and enhanced quality of life. We propose that animal choice based on a participant’s preference may enhance the experience of AAI and maximize its outcomes. A common technique used to reliably determine preferred interactions and activities in interventions for children with ASD is a stimulus preference assessment. The video-based multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) procedure, in particular, allows for discrimination of complex stimuli that could not feasibly be presented all at once, which is the case when choosing an animal. Based on the well-documented reliability of this technique in the field of applied behavior analysis, we propose that a future direction in AAI is utilizing video-based MSWO to guide animal selection.
Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2017 · doi:10.3389/fvets.2017.00029