Researchers from the Hospital Research Centre of Brest in France compared children with autism whose families introduced a pet at age five with those families who had no pets, and families where children grew up with or without a pet.
Parents were asked to complete a survey used to diagnose autism when the children were five and then again at the time of the study. They also asked parents about the presence of pets in the family, their child’s relationship with the pet and whether the pet was bought especially for their child.
For the first study, they analysed 24 children with autism with an average age of 11. A dozen had received a dog, cat or rabbit after they turned five, while the rest had never had a pet.
In the second study of 16 children, half had grown up with pets in the family from birth and half had never had a pet.
The findings revealed that children whose families introduced a pet into the household after their fifth birthday, were more likely to share and offer comfort to their parents or other children when they were sad or hurt.
However, there was no significant change in children who grew up with a family pet since birth. Few parents reported their child as interacting with their pets or caring and playing with them.
Similar results were observed for children whose families had a pet from birth and those who never owned a pet.
The research suggests that ‘the arrival of a pet may have triggered a change in the individuals’ "perception of the social world". Pets are supposed to enhance different skills in children with typical development such as self-esteem, socio-emotional development and empathy. According to several authors, children with typical development seem to learn prosocial behaviors through their interactions with pets (e.g. sharing with and stroking the pet). Could this also be the case for individuals with autism?’
The study, Does pet arrival trigger prosocial behaviours in individuals with autism? is published in the journal PLoS ONE.