Abstract

Outcomes have varied in studies with Equine therapy (ET) among children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). The hypotheses for this study included that Equine Therapy will have different benefit in boys compared to girls; this benefit would differ in older ASD children compared to younger ASD population. Also, children who were diagnosed at a younger age with ASD or had additional diagnoses besides ASD would be less likely to benefit from Equine Therapy (due to severity of their disorder). The benefits from Equine Therapy will be different in various domains of ASD and would be different depending on the Horse or Trainer used in Equine Therapy. Questionnaire was prepared which requested parents to rate their experiences and responses to questions pertaining to Equine therapy for their ASD children. There were 17 males and 6 females. The number of ASD children with age 6-20 year old is 10, 11-15 year old is 12 and 16-20 year old is 1. There were 21 out of 23 children with ASD diagnosis and 18 of these children were diagnosed with ASD before the age of 5 years. Out of 23 responses, 22 of the participants observed a benefit from before to after Equine therapy in their children. For the domains that benefitted in children from Equine therapy, benefit from “All domains” (speech, social, behavior, coordination) was seen in 7 children. The study showed that most of these children liked Equine Therapy and about half of the parents expected their ASD children to like Equine therapy, reflecting an expectation of success with Equine therapy. Also, nearly all the parents of ASD children observed their children to benefit from before to after an Equine therapy session with most benefit seen in the domains of Speech and Social. This study would need to be replicated with a larger sample size to confirm these findings.