The integration of a pupil with ASD with a teacher and a trained dog: Invitations, gazes and word count
Keywords:
animal assisted education, autism spectrum, dog assisted, interactionAbstract
This study investigated dog assisted education and its significance by focusing on the
interaction participation of a single pupil with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study
explored how this pupil, Gabriel, took part in interaction in different situations: 1) with a
trained dog, 2) with a teacher when the trained dog was present and 3) with the teacher when
the trained dog was not present. Video data collected from a special education classroom was
used as the data source for the study. An interaction analysis on the video data was carried
out with a particular focus on interaction initiatives, gaze, and the number of spoken words
in verbal interaction. Our results suggest that the presence of the dog might benefit the
pupil’s participation in interaction. When interacting with the teacher without the dog,
Gabriel was relatively most active in respect of initiations. However, there were qualitative
differences between initiations in different situations. It was also noticed that when the
dog was present, Gabriel continued conversations, which the teacher had started, to new
directions. When the dog was present, Gabriel directed his gaze to his interaction partner
more often. In particular, he looked at the dog more often and longer. The least and only short
gazes appeared when Gabriel was interacting only with the teacher without the dog present.
The amount of spoken words was the lowest when Gabriel interacted with the dog but the
highest when Gabriel interacted with the dog present. This research increases understanding
of dog assisted education and its significance for pupils with ASD, especially how it can
support their participation in interaction.
