Grant Awarded to Temple Grandin Equine Center to Study Equine-assisted Therapy for Children with Autism

Girl putting horse through its paces.
Girl putting horse through its paces. Filestore

Newsdate: Thursday November 1, 2018, 9:00 am
Location: CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio

Horses and Humans Research Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Temple Grandin Equine Center, Colorado State University to research The Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of a Manualized Equine-assisted Occupational Therapy Intervention for Children with Autism.

Young girl balancing on horse.

Young girl balancing on horse

Study tracks effects of equine assisted occupational therapy for children with autism, plus feasibility, retention and impact of results.
© 2012 by Borel Pavel

This research study is actually phase two of a comprehensive four phase study that tracks not only the effects of equine assisted occupational therapy for children with autism, but also the feasibility of the intervention and the retention and impact of results.

Principal Investigator, Dr. B. Caitlin Peters, stated that ideally the final long term results will be to disseminate an intervention manual allowing occupational therapists at riding centers across the globe to easily provide an evidence-based intervention to the children with autism.

Therapeutic riding centers serve individuals with autism more than any other group. Equine-assisted occupational therapy (EAOT) integrates horses into occupational therapy treatments to improve the social and behavioral functioning and related occupational performance of children with autism.

This study aims to determine if a manual that outlines how to provide EAOT to children with autism is feasible to implement, and is acceptable to therapists and participants.

The project will also assess the impact of EAOT on individual occupational performance goals, social functioning, behavior, and chronic stress of children with autism.

This appears to be the first study of an equine-assisted therapy for children with autism to a) assess feasibility and acceptability of a manualized intervention, b) use random assignments to treatment or control groups, and c) assess outcomes with blinded raters and physiological indicators.

Measures will include areas such as surveys, focus groups, participant attendance, assessment completion, drop-out rates and fidelity to the intervention manual as indicators of feasibility of implementation.  The effect of EAOT on children with autism will be measured before and after the intervention through established assessments ratings as well as well as collected hair samples that will be analyzed for cortisol content, an indicator of chronic stress. 

The results of this study will be used to design a future, large-scale randomized clinical trial. In addition, the results will be used to improve the EAOT intervention manual. The long-term goal is to determine if EAOT is an effective intervention for children with autism. If so, the intervention manual can be disseminated so that occupational therapists can provide evidenced based therapy sessions for their clients.

About Horses and Humans Research Foundation:

Mission: Through sustained investment in rigorous research, HHRF serves as a catalyst to advance global knowledge of horse-human interactions and their impact on health and wellness.

Horses and Humans Research Foundation (HHRF) is dedicated to funding research to investigate the equine-assisted activities and therapies field. Since its founding, HHRF has awarded over $600,000 in professional research efforts led by thirteen research teams in the United States, Canada and Germany. HHRF is a non-endowed foundation dependent solely on donations. To make a donation and/or learn more about this and other Horses and Humans Research Foundation projects visit https://www.horsesandhumans.org/


Press release provided by Horses and Humans Research Foundation

About the Author

Press Release

Author picture

This news article is a press release received by the organization or person noted above. Press releases from recognized horse health companies and individuals are frequently posted on EquiMed as a service to our visitors. Please contact the author of the press release directly for additional information.

Subscribe