I attended a meeting of an organisation that brings successful businessmen and potential young entrepreneurs together. The talks ranged on management, how to make the existing fields better and how to find and keep customers etc. Standard stuff that you can find in a business help group. I can think of fifty new areas of self employment that one could make a lot of money and get happiness, that have to do with animals and environment. One of them is to start an institution training service dogs for the disabled.
Autism is a difficult disorder to diagnose in the beginning. The child seems distracted, bad tempered, withdrawn, moody. It is with a great deal of bewilderment that parents finally realize that their child is autistic. The disorder is not uncommon, in fact in America it is one in nine children now. In India every city has a special school for the autistic. When I was Minister for Social Justice, I paid for one in Chennai which quickly filled up.
Autism is a severe disorder that affects the way a child sees and interacts with the rest of the world. It effects sensory, memory, motor and postural control. The child has virtually no social and communication skills and is soon isolated both within the family and with other people. Many autistic children display a tendency to run away in open spaces making going to a public place almost impossible. Many autistic children also experience difficulty sleeping and suffer from insomnia.
Children with autism are often misunderstood because their brains process information differently. While they understand facts and numbers they cannot understand concepts or ideas at all. Their brains process information in a very detailed way- they take in major and minor stimuli all together: for instance, a car driving by, the smell of their clothing and the sound of a dog barking to make a decision. Too many details cause them to become confused , frightened and angry. They express little or no attachment to humans , the concept of mother or brother is not immediately apparent to them.
Dogs have been proven to be an asset for children diagnosed with autism and their families. They provide a social "bridge" for children who are often excluded by others because of their behavior or lack of social interaction. They provide comfort as well as calm autistic children . Autistic children who run away and hide can also be quickly and easily found by assistance dogs that are trained to locate them.
Dogs have been used for many years by the blind. Abroad most old age centres and some hospitals have dogs specially in the children’s wards because they have realized the benefits of the human-animal interaction. They have found the patients heal faster, the elderly suffer from fewer physical problems.
Now dogs are being trained to help those with autism. Families say they have seen marked improvement in their children. The support group Autism Speaks includes a list of dog-training groups. A person with autism is a person with a disability and a service animal is any dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to someone with a disability.
Guide dogs for the blind provide visual help, taking them through dangers invisible to the human. Guide dogs for the deaf are trained to alert their owner to important noises or other things requiring human intervention, such as a smoke alarm, a crying baby, a telephone ringing, a knock at the door. An autistic person is easily confused by minor sights and smells and his brain becomes confused on which is important to deal with : the smell of a cloth, the car passing by, the sound of a bird – all these get equal attention and cause the brain to overstimulate and create panic and withdrawal. Autism service dogs are trained to help the human prioritize information and to take them through potentially dangerous situations. A normal dog will calm the child, divert him from harming himself, correct his balance, alert him to important sounds, steer around obstacles for instance. Having a dog with an autistic child has many benefits : the child is safer and stops running away when frightened; the child’s social skills become better; the family can go out together safely and confidently; the children become calmer giving them an increased attention span and a greater aptitude for learning
These dogs are companions that assist increase the safety of the child and reduce the stress level of the family. These dogs are naturally interesting which often draws the attention of the autistic child as well as others. The child is drawn into social interaction . Dogs are taught to nudge a child that is performing repetitive behavior, this touch is often all that is required to redirect the child from this behavior. Dogs can provide independence by allowing the child to walk with the dog as opposed to constantly holding the hand of a parent or adult. Austistic children are noticed to have an increase in vocabulary after being paired with a dog. The children seem to be more comfortable in speaking with the dog . Dogs provide a certain level of comfort that can often improve a child’s ability to sleep more throughout the night. Autistic children with dogs have been documented to feel less anger and experience less acts of aggression compared to the time before receiving an assistance dog. Assistance dogs are taught to track the child in the event that they run or go missing. This ability to locate the child quickly, greatly reduces the risk of serious harm
A study by the University of Montreal shows that trained service dogs can actually reduce anxiety levels in autistic children. 42 children were measured for the amount of cortisol in their saliva – a hormone that is produced by the body in response to stress – after they were given dogs. The findings published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, showed that stress levels went down.
5% of India suffers from disability. They have very little help. Training dogs for the disabled is very big business abroad. Why not start it here? Normal Indian dogs, from the roads, as it were, will get a new chance at life and so will the child and the family they protect. In 1996, National Service Dogs for Children with Autism was created and they train organisations round the world. For more information on NSD, visit www.nsd.on.ca. If nothing else, think of it as a business opportunity.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Autism is a difficult disorder to diagnose in the beginning. The child seems distracted, bad tempered, withdrawn, moody. It is with a great deal of bewilderment that parents finally realize that their child is autistic. The disorder is not uncommon, in fact in America it is one in nine children now. In India every city has a special school for the autistic. When I was Minister for Social Justice, I paid for one in Chennai which quickly filled up.
Autism is a severe disorder that affects the way a child sees and interacts with the rest of the world. It effects sensory, memory, motor and postural control. The child has virtually no social and communication skills and is soon isolated both within the family and with other people. Many autistic children display a tendency to run away in open spaces making going to a public place almost impossible. Many autistic children also experience difficulty sleeping and suffer from insomnia.
Children with autism are often misunderstood because their brains process information differently. While they understand facts and numbers they cannot understand concepts or ideas at all. Their brains process information in a very detailed way- they take in major and minor stimuli all together: for instance, a car driving by, the smell of their clothing and the sound of a dog barking to make a decision. Too many details cause them to become confused , frightened and angry. They express little or no attachment to humans , the concept of mother or brother is not immediately apparent to them.
Dogs have been proven to be an asset for children diagnosed with autism and their families. They provide a social "bridge" for children who are often excluded by others because of their behavior or lack of social interaction. They provide comfort as well as calm autistic children . Autistic children who run away and hide can also be quickly and easily found by assistance dogs that are trained to locate them.
Dogs have been used for many years by the blind. Abroad most old age centres and some hospitals have dogs specially in the children’s wards because they have realized the benefits of the human-animal interaction. They have found the patients heal faster, the elderly suffer from fewer physical problems.
Now dogs are being trained to help those with autism. Families say they have seen marked improvement in their children. The support group Autism Speaks includes a list of dog-training groups. A person with autism is a person with a disability and a service animal is any dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to someone with a disability.
Guide dogs for the blind provide visual help, taking them through dangers invisible to the human. Guide dogs for the deaf are trained to alert their owner to important noises or other things requiring human intervention, such as a smoke alarm, a crying baby, a telephone ringing, a knock at the door. An autistic person is easily confused by minor sights and smells and his brain becomes confused on which is important to deal with : the smell of a cloth, the car passing by, the sound of a bird – all these get equal attention and cause the brain to overstimulate and create panic and withdrawal. Autism service dogs are trained to help the human prioritize information and to take them through potentially dangerous situations. A normal dog will calm the child, divert him from harming himself, correct his balance, alert him to important sounds, steer around obstacles for instance. Having a dog with an autistic child has many benefits : the child is safer and stops running away when frightened; the child’s social skills become better; the family can go out together safely and confidently; the children become calmer giving them an increased attention span and a greater aptitude for learning
These dogs are companions that assist increase the safety of the child and reduce the stress level of the family. These dogs are naturally interesting which often draws the attention of the autistic child as well as others. The child is drawn into social interaction . Dogs are taught to nudge a child that is performing repetitive behavior, this touch is often all that is required to redirect the child from this behavior. Dogs can provide independence by allowing the child to walk with the dog as opposed to constantly holding the hand of a parent or adult. Austistic children are noticed to have an increase in vocabulary after being paired with a dog. The children seem to be more comfortable in speaking with the dog . Dogs provide a certain level of comfort that can often improve a child’s ability to sleep more throughout the night. Autistic children with dogs have been documented to feel less anger and experience less acts of aggression compared to the time before receiving an assistance dog. Assistance dogs are taught to track the child in the event that they run or go missing. This ability to locate the child quickly, greatly reduces the risk of serious harm
A study by the University of Montreal shows that trained service dogs can actually reduce anxiety levels in autistic children. 42 children were measured for the amount of cortisol in their saliva – a hormone that is produced by the body in response to stress – after they were given dogs. The findings published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, showed that stress levels went down.
5% of India suffers from disability. They have very little help. Training dogs for the disabled is very big business abroad. Why not start it here? Normal Indian dogs, from the roads, as it were, will get a new chance at life and so will the child and the family they protect. In 1996, National Service Dogs for Children with Autism was created and they train organisations round the world. For more information on NSD, visit www.nsd.on.ca. If nothing else, think of it as a business opportunity.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.