A Canine Assisted Educational Initiative
By Kari Dunn Buron
I think the ‘Claire Buron Project’, as we have
come to call it, began years ago when I read about the positive effects
of dog ownership.
I began thinking that if owning a dog
could lower a person’s stress level, and if just petting the dog could
release pleasurable hormones, then maybe a dog could help calm highly
anxious students with autism in a school setting. By profession, I
worked with ASD students on a daily basis; I knew their difficulties
with language, with socialization, with sensory issues. I witnessed the
huge amount of stress and anxiety these students lived within daily.
Could canine therapy help them?
The Journey Begins
Sometimes life has a way of bringing you
the answers you seek, and two events occurred in 2004 that brought our
puppy training program to life. In May I had the pleasure of visiting
the Orion Academy, a private high school program for students with
Asperger Syndrome in California. The school uses puppy training as a
way of teaching nonverbal social communication to students. Hmm, not
only could such a program focus on relaxation, I thought, but also on
nonverbal social communication. Later in the year a colleague gave me a
1995 article from a presentation at the 7th International Conference on
Human-Animal Interactions titled “Relationships Between Young People
with Autism and Their Pets” by J. McNicholas and G.M. Collis. The
article indicated that pet therapy could benefit individuals with ASD
in learning relationship-building skills, such as proximity seeking,
greeting, giving and receiving comfort, sensitivity and play. It was
this article that prompted me to add a third goal to my puppy project
outline: relationship building.
In January of this year, my wonderful
husband gave me a beautiful yellow lab puppy for my birthday. He named
her Claire, and our program began to unfold. Claire and I enrolled in
the Twin Cities Obedience Training Club, starting with the Puppy
Socialization class and then moving on to Level One Obedience. Claire
was fortunate to have a wonderful teacher, Danielle Muellner, for her
obedience class who not only made the class fun for both of us, but
also helped me understand the strategies involved in slowly shaping the
behavior I wanted to see. I decided to train Claire myself in tasks
that were specific to my autism program objectives.
The Plan
After
about 3 months, Claire had acquired basic obedience skills and I had
trained her in enough different program tasks that we were ready to
start working with students in a classroom setting. Arrangements were
made for Claire to visit a self-contained elementary autism program
located in Otter Lake Elementary school in White Bear Lake, MN. The CID
(Communication and Interactional Disorders) Program consists of 15
students with ASD in 3 classrooms from 6 different school districts.
The children are highly anxious and many demonstrate explosive and
aggressive behavior. We also partnered with Courage North in northern
Minnesota, to work with students there. Courage North is a summer camp
for youth with Asperger Syndrome sponsored by the Autism Society of
Minnesota. Parents of all the children who would be involved in the
pilot programs were contacted for permission and to ask about any fears
or allergies we might encounter.
 Specific program goals and activities
were designed for Claire and the CID program students in the areas of
Relationship Building, Nonverbal Social Communication and Relaxation. Visuals were incorporated to prepare students for
Claire’s arrival and support student understanding about the program.
Two Social Stories™ (Carol Gray) with accompanying pictures were
written to support the students’ understanding of “Claire Day” and the
schedule and activities.
We also made a Claire Day sign for the therapy
room door, a list of things to do with Claire, a sign with words that
make Claire happy, and Claire’s very own 5-point scale for students to
rate her energy and activity levels.
Claire’s 5-Point Scale
5 = Too high! Not following directions
4 = High energy but following directions
3 = Walking or standing, lookingand listening
2 = Sitting down, mellow.
1 = Sleepy. Laying Down
Claire and I spent an average of 6 hours a week working with the
students in the CID program over a period of 4 months. The program’s
sensory therapy room was used for 1:1 time for each student and Claire.
I initially assessed the student’s abilities and responses to Claire
and then created individualized task lists and visual choice boards to
use for each session. Sessions varied from 15 to 30 minutes depending
on the level of student interest and engagement. The student’s
communication system was utilized for all of the sessions (verbal,
Picture Exchange Communication System or other assistive devices). When
possible, I grouped students and structured social turn-taking games.
An example of a game we played was “Guess Claire’s Favorite Toy”. I
took photos of several toys available to Claire and made a visual
illustration and then put all the available toys in front of Claire. I
instructed students to “Look at Claire, guess her favorite toy.” Well,
Claire will always choose the tennis ball when given a choice, but most
of the students guessed their favorite toy (usually the bubbles). This
provided a great opportunity to have students watch Claire’s behavior
again to see what she is looking at and make a second guess.
I did all
of the instruction for this pilot project with the assistance of some
wonderful Educational Assistants. As the project progressed, several
teachers joined us to observe their student’s responses. My long term
goal is to have the program run independently without me once initial
training takes place.
Don’t Eat The Deer Poop!
The Relationship Building objective was by far the most successful
at both the elementary school and later at camp. The social motivation
to be with Claire surpassed my greatest expectations. I had always
considered myself at least moderately fun to be with, but now both
students and campers rushed to greet us whenever Claire and I were
present.
The teachers at Otter Lake reported that their verbally limited
students were bringing the “dog picture” to them to request time with
Claire. One little girl, who rarely speaks, took her teacher’s hand and
said, “Out, dog, now!” indicating that she wanted to leave her
classroom and go see Claire. Several camp counselors reported that
their campers would participate in non-preferred activities for a
chance to go visis with Claire. One student, who was highly motivated
by the opportunity to play with Claire, invented new games for Claire
to play, including the rope ball catch and the squeaky toy turn taking
game.
Two
of the students, and then later several of the campers, gained new
skills by working in pairs with Claire. The worked on turn taking and
what might be called 'parallel socialization'. My goal during these
times was to create opportunities for the peers to interact and
hopefully enjoy each other’s company. One story worth telling involved
two students who were taking Claire for a walk in the early spring. The
girls were sharing by trading off the job of holding the leash. All of
a sudden, Claire saw and began to eat some deer poop (ever present in
the spring in Minnesota). I said in an exaggerated voice, “Oh no!
Claire, don’t eat the deer poop!!” Well, we all three just laughed and
laughed. Two weeks later we were about to take Claire for another walk
when one of the girls, who is quite echolalic, said, “Claire, don’t eat
the deer poop!” Then the other girl, who uses many visual prompts in
her school program said, “She needs a sign!” So we made a sign. The
experience was social, fun and engaging for all of us, but most
importantly between the two girls.
Canine Comfort
“When
someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them
gently.” I remember reading this some time ago in a paper titled “If a
dog was the teacher you would learn stuff like…” The author is unknown
but the wisdom lived on within our program with Claire.
At the
start of the program there were 4 students at the school who were
afraid to visit Claire. In the beginning we had these students just
watch Claire from a distance. When they felt comfortable, we asked them
to throw the tennis ball for Claire to retrieve. An interesting
observation was that Claire seemed to sense their reluctance. When she
would retrieve the ball, she would stop about three feet from the
anxious student and nose lift the ball back to him. Everyone who
witnessed this was amazed at Claire’s “sixth sense”. Claire often went
over on her own to students who were having a tough time. She would
just lie down next to them and let them pet her. Remarkably, she began
doing this early on when she was only 4 months old.
The students
enjoyed helping Claire relax when she would get really excited about
her tennis ball. Putting a weighted blanket on her, rubbing her tummy
and holding her tight were some of the ways they helped her to
relax.
Learning to Watch Claire
The children who
worked with Claire at the school and at camp also achieved the
nonverbal social communication goals we created for the program.
Students and campers both loved to use the “Chuck it” (a toy used to
throw the tennis ball). This toy, once it was mastered, helped the
students throw the ball farther and demonstrated for them the
importance of having Claire’s attention prior to the throw. If she
wasn’t looking, she often ran off in the wrong direction. This activity
became Claire’s favorite and was later used to teach Claire to retrieve
in the lake at camp.
Teaching Claire to respond to signs
rather than just verbal commands turned out to be a favorite activity
for the students. It demonstrated for them that using too many words
with Claire only confused her; showing her what you wanted always
worked the best.
The Future
Overall the program was a
success with students at both the CID Program and camp, and Claire has
been invited back to each setting. The potential for this type of
program is great. Puppy therapy provides a warm, natural, engaging
avenue for students to develop social skills, practice language and
communication and become more comfortable with peers. Claire became a
topic of conversation among students and that helped them use their
newly acquired skills outside of direct program time.
We
continue to expand Claire’s roles and work out new activities and
objectives for the students. Claire will be one next month and she and
I continue to take obedience classes.
I would like to
stress to all interested in undertaking such a project that while I am
a trained autism specialist, I did not have any significant prior
experience training dogs. I read several books on dog training and
using Labrador retrievers as helping dogs, but most of all, I gave
Claire lots and lots of time and attention. The commitment cannot be
taken lightly and at times both Claire and I were exhausted.
I am
so very proud of Claire and am often in awe of her insight and
gentleness. She forms connections with ASD children in ways that
challenge my ‘education’ about autism and how to best teach these kids.
It’s an ongoing learning process for all involved. Claire has added so
much to my life - she has truly become a friend and colleague.
 Kari Dunn Buron is an Autism Resource Specialist for ISD #916 in White Bear Lake, MN and has worked with individuals on the autism spectrum
for over 25 years. She is the founder and coordinator of both the ASD
Certificate program for educators at Hamline University and Camp
Discovery (a camp for youth with Asperger Syndrome). Kari is the author
of When My Autism Gets Too Big, a co-author of The Incredible 5-Point Scale (both published by the Autism Asperger Publishing Company), and is currently co-editing a textbook with Dr. Pamela Wolfberg, Educating Learners on the Autism Spectrum: Translating Theory into Meaningful Practice, to be released in 2006 by AAPC. Kari welcomes comments at
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[added January 31, 2007]
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