Journal 12/18

1. « WE BELIEVED SHE WAS EXCLUDED… » The hard of hearing and the world of soud
2. Clinical effectiveness of animal assisted therapy in severe dishability: a case report
3. Medicine and Disability: Collaboration between the doctor and the educational team
4. Animal assisted interventions, about controversies...
5. The right to become a mother: reflection on a psychotherapeutic situation linked to disability
6. An analytical model in a context of a specialized early intervention
7. Mirror Psychopedagogy in the Population with Severe Autism and Intellectual Disability (SAID)
8. «I» and «They»: Is the inability of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) to distinct themselves from others apparent to their human figure drawings compared to their TD (Typical Developing) peers?

2. Clinical effectiveness of animal assisted therapy in severe dishability: a case report

In the case of persons with autistic spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, who may have limited or absent verbal communication, conventional educational and psychotherapeutic interventions provide only limited improvement. The presence of behavioural disorders adds difficulties in social integration and adaptation in socio-educational institutions, highlighting the need for innovative approaches for this population. Animal-assisted therapy is a specific context of intervention used as a complement to conventional therapies, where the animal plays an intermediary role between the therapist and the patient. Although many studies tend to demonstrate that this method is beneficial, the benefits are rarely fully explained and the role of the therapist is quite completely forgotten.

Proposing animal assisted therapy in our psychiatric unit since 2008, we observed beneficial effects in many patients. The aim of the present article is then to describe the method used with one adult patient who present autism spectrum disorder and severe intellectual disability and for whom animal assisted therapy with a dog permitted a real improvement of his mood and a significant decrease in behavioural disorders measured with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist.

The evolution of the patient has been slow, but his present state is mostly very positive, with real change in his mood and disappearance of behavioural disorders. Indeed, the patient ABC scores show a clear amelioration. He also speaks more spontaneously and responds more adequately to questions, he composes sentences to talk about his state of mind and he no longer exhibits self- and hetero-aggressive behaviours.

The analysis of this patient’s evolution allows us to highlight the therapeutic processes that can take place in this type of intervention. In addition, we describe several therapy mechanisms generally involved in animal assisted therapy, where the therapist also plays of course a fundamental role.

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Language: English

4. Animal assisted interventions, about controversies...

Message to skeptics, doubters, puzzleds and others...

Scientific background, I like to argue, discuss, elaborate around a subject and often contradict so much that I have already been reproached for it. I like to play with skepticism, in the idea of going ever further in the knowledge. So I have nothing against skeptics in general, from Quebec or elsewhere, or against those whose workhorse boils down to a particular subject, on which they on which they strive without anyone really knowing why… What is troublesome, however, is when critics do not lead anywhere and the arguments lack intelligence. The result is all the more annoying when you know the subject criticized.

Thus, practicing as a psychologist psychotherapist and pet therapist for almost 15 years, having researched and published in the field, I think I know my subject. Obviously, everyone is free to express doubts as to the benefits of pet therapy or the presence of animals in general, it is not done for everyone ... but still it is necessary that the arguments hold the road ... And then, for some reason, the manipulation of the reader - with sophisticated words and well-chosen references - annoys me.

This text therefore presents what animal assisted interventions really are, with an example of practice adapted to a particular population, and why critics lack substance. For me, if the debate is possible, it is still open to the input of arguments allowing us a real intelligent dialogue, so that the great minds meet...

6. An analytical model in a context of a specialized early intervention

This paper presents an analytical model to be used in a context of a specialized early intervention based on early intervention evidences, this model wish to integrate in an harmonious way, the clinical process used in rehabilitation settings with the Human Development Model - Handicap Production Process, (MDH-PPH), Fougeyrollas (2010). Thus, the main theoretical bases of early intervention, a brief overview of the MDH-PPH and the challenges experimented when using this model in an early intervention context are discussed to justify the need for a model such as the one proposed. This model is then defined by its origins, objectives, components and its main purpose: the adoption of an educational project involving parents, children and professionals from various disciplines. Therefore, the interdisciplinary team including the parents using this model would first identify the main goals of the intervention as well as the desired changes on the child’s life skills and then would elaborate goals and objectives to develop these skills in each of the intervention domains. This model also guide a deeper understanding of the interrelations that exist between the childs’s strenghts and challenges in each of the developemental domains and how the child particular profile will intereact with the social and physical aspects of his environement.

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Language: French

8. «I» and «They»: Is the inability of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) to distinct themselves from others apparent to their human figure drawings compared to their TD (Typical Developing) peers?

One of the predominant features of children belonging to the autistic spectrum disorder is their inability to distinct themselves from others. There is, also, evidence that drawings of human forms by children with autism tend to lack variety, possibly because they reflect the unusual way these children think about and relate to other people. Based on the above references we hypothesized children’s drawings of human figures apart from their general intellectual and artistic abilities reveal things about their awareness and conception of themselves and others. The aim of the current study is to investigate if the inability of autistic children to distinct themselves from others appears in their human drawings too as a consequence of their limit social and communicative experience. For this purpose, 12 children were recruited, 6 with ASD and 6 typically developing matched on gender and chronological and verbal mental age. Both groups were asked to produce three human figures (one to represent their father, one for their mother and a third one to represent themselves). Then, they requested to draw a house, a house of a relative or a close to them person (grandparents, friends etc.) and at last their own house. The human and house drawings were scored using standardized procedures (McCarthy’s Scale, 1972 and Lee and Hobson’s Scale, 2006) for assessing accuracy, detail and complexity. The results revealed that the human figure drawing scores of children with ASD were slightly lower than those of the typically developing children but there were no significant score differences within the drawing scores of autistic group. As it was expected, there were no score differences within the autistic group regarding the drawings of the two genders, which is not apply in case of their TD peers. What is worth mentioning is that lack of distinction was not restricted exclusively in case of human figures but also on house drawings of autistic children as the score contrast was not high enough. This last result may be affected by the small number of the sample, therefore it is doubtful and cannot be generalized.

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