Effects of Equine Assisted Therapy on Social and Undesirable Behaviors of Youths with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and investigate the effects of equine assisted therapy on social and undesirable behaviors of youths with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Six youths with autistic spectrum disorder aged 14-25 years were recruited by purposive sampling. They attended the 8 session program, twice a week. Each session took 80-90 minutes. The program included 4 activities: orientation/introduction, food preparation and feeding, grooming, and leading a horse. Subjects’ social and undesirable behaviors were assessed before and after the program using the following: 1) Recording forms for social behaviors and undesirable behaviors (Sung-U et.al, 2009) 2) The Scale of Independent Behavior-Revised (SIB-R) (Bruininks, 1996) using subtests for social interaction and communication skills, and a subtest for undesirable behaviors: frequency and severity of these behaviors. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used for data analysis, to compare units of measurement before and after the program. The results showed scores of SIB-R in subtests of language comprehension and language expression. The total scores were significantly increased (p<0.05). However, the subtest of social interaction was not significantly increased (P>0.05). Furthermore, the frequency scores of undesirable behaviors were not significantly decreased (P>0.05), but the severity score of these behaviors was significantly decreased (p<0.05). The social behavior score from the record forms was not significantly increased (P>0.05), but scores of undesirable behaviors were significantly decreased (p<0.05). The study concluded that a program of equine assisted therapy can encourage social behaviors and reduce undesirable behaviors in youth with autistic spectrum disorder.