Service dogs as “social catalysts” assisting people with ASD
Posted By Dan Swearingen on August 23, 2009
At one point we considered a service dog for Ian. Mainly, we saw a dog as a way to facilitate Ian interacting with peers. The idea is that kids are attracted to the dog and talk to Ian while petting the dog. As Ian spent more time in mainstream classrooms we saw that he gets pretty good social traction on his own so we ended up not getting the dog. With the late-teen years looming we may revisit this decision.
Schools vary on their policies around service dogs. Since they are sometimes seen as merely a “comfort” and not an essential like a seeing-eye dog for the blind some schools forbid service dogs and some parents have had to take their schools to court.
See Schools fight families over autism service dogs
- AP Photo / Robin Scholz
Nichelle Drew, center, leaves Villa Grove Elementary School in Villa Grove, Ill., with her son Kaleb,6, and his autism service dog, Chewey, after attending a half day of school on Friday, Aug. 21, 2009. Like seeing-eye dogs for the blind, trained dogs are now being used to help autistic children deal with their disabilities. But some schools want to keep the animals out, and families are fighting back.
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