Autistic Children warm to Canine companions

Satisfactory results

The Nanjing Mingxin Education and Training Center for Children was among the first to welcome Wu and his dogs.

Some teachers at the center were afraid of the dogs when they visited, but decided to continue with the experiment after watching Wu interact with the animals.

Tao Jingjing, director of the 17-year-old center, said the experiment went well and the teachers were satisfied with the results.

"Many autistic children become active and excited when they see dogs," she said. "They are willing to get close to the animals, and some even try to touch them. Though some children are reluctant at first, they try to interact with the dogs after seeing other children having a great time with them.

"Almost all the children taking part in AAT have made progress. Now, the therapy, which we have once every month, is one of the center's most welcome activities."

Wu said that one boy who refused to have physical contact with others impressed him deeply. He tried to have more conservation and interaction with the boy during the therapy sessions, and after several classes, when Wu asked if he could have a hug, the boy agreed.

Wu pointed to some volunteers at the center and asked if the boy would give each of them a hug, and he agreed. Finally, he said to him, "Your mum works so hard every day to take care of you, will you hug her and say thank you?"

The mother burst into tears when her son went to hug her and whispered "thank you" to him.

"Although autistic children seldom want to communicate with people, most of them are interested in animals and talk to me about giving orders to those that are well-trained. In this way, we increase the interaction with the children," Wu said.

He added that he and his team have also designed training sessions to improve the children's conversation, social skills and responsiveness.

Xiao Yanfen, the mother of autistic twins, said her boys have made significant progress after receiving AAT.

"They were very active and could not stop moving around, no matter how hard we tried to talk sense into them. Having two such children sometimes made me exhausted. But they listen to Wu when they're around the dogs, and gradually sit still.

"Now they can do some work quietly at school for a whole morning," the mother said.

Xing Shanshan, director of the Nanjing branch of Orpea, a highend French nursing home, said she and her team had tried hard to find professional AAT services in China.

"We have plenty of experience in using AAT to help treat the seniors," Xing said. "AAT is quite common in some developed countries in Europe, and in North America. I've seen our workers in France raise rabbits as AAT animals. Some institutions even have animals such as horses.

"After we opened our first branch in China in 2016, we looked for professional AAT services in the country for a long time until we learned about Wu."

Xing said AAT works well for many seniors at the home. Half of them need medical treatment and some have Alzheimer's disease. AAT for seniors simply involves them touching, hugging and talking to the animals.

"During this process, a primitive emotion is created when they and the creatures get along. The emotion, although simple, is profound," Xing said

Huang Kemin, 85, has been attending AAT sessions at Orpea for more than a year. She looks forward to seeing the animals and waits for them at the gate to the training room.

"The trained dogs prefer the elderly to workers at the home," she said. "I like having them on my lap and cuddling them.

Xing said: "Some seniors may be worried or frightened by the dogs, but after spending some time with them, they start to like the trained animals. We're also looking for other teams on the Chinese mainland that provide AAT animals other than dogs, but so far have had no success.

"The country is still in the initial stages of AAT research, and we hope that more people and animals will join in the therapy, as it helps with the recovery process for children and the elderly. There is great demand for the therapy, and the market is huge."

According to a recent report by the Wucailu Autism Research Institute in Beijing, the incidence of autism in children in China rose from 1 in 88 in 2009 to 1 in 45 by April this year.

More than 10 million people in the country have autism spectrum disorder, including more than 2 million children younger than 12. This developmental disorder affects communication and behavior.

Moreover, the Blue Book on Geriatric Health: China's Elderly Health Report (2018), released in January, showed that the number of people age 60 and older in China from 2000 to 2017 rose from 126 million to 241 million. Their proportion of the total population rose from 10.2 percent to 17.3 percent.