Animal 'doctors' for autism therapy

April 2nd marks the tenth World Autism Awareness Day. The neurodevelopmental disease has drawn increasing attention from society in recent years. According to statistics from 2015, there are over 10 million autism patients in China.

So far there are still limited methods to effectively treat the disease. However, some adjunctive therapies are used to assist the treatment. Animal therapy is one avenue which has been widely trialed.

Dolphin therapy

Chen Chen kisses the dolphin at HaiChang Aquarium in Chengdu on Mar 30, 2017. [Photo: echengdu.cn]

Chen Chen is a nine-year-old child diagnosed with autism in 2012. Lately she has received dolphin assisted therapy in Chengdu, Sichuan Province and was the first patient participating in the program in the city.

During the therapy Chen Chen interacts with the dolphin and smiles the whole time. Chen Chen's mother said she hadn't seen her child this happy in a long time.

A staff member with the program explained that dolphins can have a positive impact on autism patients with the frequency ultrasonic noises the animals make to communicate with each other.

During the therapy Chen Chen is held by an assistant in the middle of the water and the dolphin swims around the little girl and keeps touching her with its nose while making sound. [Photo: echengdu.cn]

The sounds, which are beyond human hearing, can impact the patient's nervous system, activating 'sleeping' nerve cells and facilitating autism treatment, according to research.

However, some experts question the concept saying the theory of dolphin ultrasound acting on human nerve tissue hasn't been verified by any scientific research and the practice is more akin to metaphysics. They say the therapy isn't on a deeper level than interacting with animals.

Dog therapy

An autistic boy interacts with a dog on World Autism Awareness Day in 2015 in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. [File photo: dayoo.com]

Autism assistance dogs are quite common in treatment. Dogs usually need to be trained to be qualified. They must obey their trainer's order and not harm patients no matter what they do to the dogs.

A young man named Wu Qi in Jiangsu Province received much TV exposure in 2014 due to his special profession: therapy dog trainer. The dogs he trained are meant to help autism patients.

On a TV show, Wu Qi took his border collie Lang Lang to a four-year-old autistic child. The child, obsessed with mobile games, often plays with phones and ignores everything around him, and would cry loudly if someone took his phone.

Somehow Lang Lang got his attention. When the child wanted to touch and feed the dog, Wu Qi said: "you can't touch it unless you put down the phone." Surprisingly the stubborn child agreed and put aside the phone immediately. His mother said he seldom behaves so well.

Wu Qi and his autism assistance dogs [File photo: 163.com]

Wu said dogs are super friendly and clever; they can build a bridge between normal persons and autism patients, who can be hard to communicate with.

Horse therapy

Autism patients riding horses at an activity organized by a local disabled caring center on Mar 30, 2017 in Shandong [Photo: iqilu.com]

A center for disabled persons in Shandong Province recently organized a group of autism patients to go to a local horse riding club.

The children smiled happily during the event, interacting with their horse friends. Experts said these smiles are different from those from within their own psychological world, but come from their contact with the world outside, which is a good sign for autism treatment.

Li Wenxin, a 22-year-old autistic man touching a horse in the activity on Mar 30, 2017 in Shandong. Autistic children are paid a lot of attention but adult autism patients are less concerned from society. [iqilu.com]

Horse riding involves coordination between rider and horse, which can build autism patients' trust towards others and their capability to communicate with others through non-verbal ways, explained the organizer of the activity.

Elephant therapy

An autistic boy rides a therapy elephant in Lampang, northern Thailand on Apr 21, 2011. [File photo: AP]

Elephants have been engaged in autism therapy in an elephant protection center based in Lampang, northern Thailand since ten years or so ago. It organizes activities for autistic children to play with elephants.

Children would play ball with them, touch them, bathe them and some even climbed on the backs of the elephants. They looked more natural getting along with the elephants than with people, said a staff member.

Parents of these children said their children became a little more open-minded after interacting with elephants.

Turtle therapy

Turtles are thought to have similar characters with the autistic. [File photo: baidu.com]

In a special case, a couple of turtles were used to treat Xiao Mi, a 5-year-old autistic boy, according to a report from ifeng.com.

Turtles, like autism patients, love to have their own space and are not willing to interact with the outside world, which builds a very comfortable relationship basis for both.

When initially receiving the therapy, Xiao Mi was nervous, barely looking at others. Three months later he could carefully take new born turtles out from incubators.

Even though animal therapy is widely used around the world, experts say little can be changed in terms of the physiological condition of autism patients; animal therapy can only be of assistance and cannot replace other treatments.