Equine Therapy and Autism

Equine Therapy and Autism

Deanna McCarthy Perkins

March 9, 2014LIS 201 H002

“Horses walked with me when no one else was there for me...”

Meghan Dixon, teenager with Autism

What is Autism?

A mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.

Source: Oxford-Dictionaries online, 2014

What is Equine Assisted Therapy?

Therapy assisted by the use of a horse and/or its movement, including equine-assisted psychotherapy, horseback riding, and hippotherapy.

Source: Reference M.D. Online, 2012

Benefits of Equine Therapy for Autistic Children

Self esteem Relationship skills Decreased distractibility Self confidence Aids in healing process CommunicationSource: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 2011

Horses Heal?

Humans have had communication and close relations with animals since the beginning of time.

Autistic children live in a world where it is hard to reach out.

Horses bring out the child within the autistic child.

Horse Therapy should be made available to every child with autism as a beneficial therapy.

ReferencesAutism. 2014. In

OxfordDictionaires.com. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/autism

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. (2011). Equine facilitated learning for children. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/h/health-policy/evbased/default.htm

Equine Assisted Therapy. 2012. In Reference.MD.html Retrieved March 3, 2014 from http://www.reference.md/files/D056/mD056147.html

Dixon, M. [Meghan Dixon]. (2014, February 8). Hoof prints in the sand [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZtnGKSGd8

Photographs are the sole property of Deanna McCarthy ~ Perkins taken at K&C Stables in Kiln, Mississippi