Pets boost kids’ mental growth, suggests study

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 4

The dogs are not only the best friend of human beings but also help in the mental development of children with mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy. This has been revealed by a study on psycho-social effects of pet ownership among such children conducted by Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, child specialist at the Civil Hospital.

Dr Aggarwal conducted a study on 15 such children after motivating their parents to keep a pet dog as a companion for the kids. “We studied psychosocial effects, including interpersonal relationships, psychological issues and functioning at the school of pet ownership on children. The results have been encouraging,” he said.

The study was conducted after getting permission from hospital in-charge, SMO Dr Charanjit Singh.

He said that out of 15 children, 12 showed positive outcome. In four children with autism spectrum disorders, there is an improvement in social, communicative and behavioural deficits and there was definitive improvement in studies.

He said that in five cases of cerebral palsy, there were increase in the happiness level as the kids showed more positive response to physiotherapy in terms of joint mobility, pains and cognitive ability.

He added that in one mental retardation case having hearing deficiency, parents noticed improvement in communication skills through gestures, voices and more interest in surroundings. In another two cases of mental retardation, there was improvement in learning, increase in the IQ level and reduction of self-reported fear and anxiety.

“The children enjoy themselves more, interact verbally for longer periods and are more aware of the surroundings with pets rather than with inanimate objects,” said Dr Aggarwal.

He said that children having mental disability of more than 50 per cent or IQ of less than 70 were selected for the study. “The parents of the children were interviewed frequently to note down their response regarding improvement with respect to behavioural and emotional problems of their children and their social adjustment after keeping a pet,” he said.

The child specialist said that most of the children identified with functional limitation were complex kids in day-to-day parenting so even some improvement means a lot for their parents. He said that the findings of the Animal Assisted Activities or Animal Assisted Therapy programmes in children with a wide variety of clinical and social problems, such as behaviour problems and autistic spectrum symptoms suggest that companion animals positively influence children’s development and have a valuable role in therapy. He added that a family friendly pet was beneficial to a child who struggled with sensory, social and behavioural issues.