Guérin Noémie A, Rodriguez Kerri E, Brodhead Matthew T, O'Haire Marguerite E
Center for the Human-Animal Bond, Department of Comparative Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University , West Lafayette, IN , USA.
Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI , USA.
Front Vet Sci. 2017 Mar 10;4:29. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2017.00029. eCollection 2017.
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.
将动物纳入自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的干预措施中是一种越来越普遍的做法，即动物辅助干预（AAI）。干预中所选用动物通常完全由干预者决定，这取决于他们的经验、主观判断以及获取不同动物的难易程度。对于无法言语、不能表明偏好刺激或活动的自闭症谱系障碍患者，将偏好纳入干预措施已被证明与积极行为的增加和生活质量的提高相关。我们认为，基于参与者偏好来选择动物可能会提升动物辅助干预的体验，并使其效果最大化。在针对自闭症谱系障碍儿童的干预措施中，一种用于可靠确定偏好互动和活动的常用技术是刺激偏好评估。特别是基于视频的无替换多刺激（MSWO）程序，能够区分无法一次性全部呈现的复杂刺激，选择动物时就是这种情况。基于该技术在应用行为分析领域已得到充分证明的可靠性，我们建议动物辅助干预的一个未来发展方向是利用基于视频的MSWO来指导动物选择。
