Expanding  a child’s capabilities to experience more of life and to grow!

Supporting involvement in their community.

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Autism is a spectrum disorder, and can vary significantly in character and severity, so autism assistance dogs may be trained differently according to where their person falls on the spectrum.

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Children and even adults diagnosed with autism can have a hard time communicating with the people around them, including their families  Autism assistance dogs can act as a social bridge, helping to alleviate the stress of social interaction.When a person with ASD experiences stress, it could cause them to dart off suddenly, or run into a dangerous area without thinking, erupt into a exasperation or experience high levels of anxiety. When the dog smells the cortisol hormone on their peron, and dogs can smell that change, long before we can see it: are trained to distract them, to anchor them,to prevent the stress levels rising or developing into a meltdown.  Yes AAAD can help scent train your dog to be in tune with their person's stress levels and how to help.

 

Our dogs help not only the child or person with autism but the whole family the ability to tackle some of the many issues associated with autism.  Through being  a best friend  offering companionship, comfort, and unconditional love, our dogs help provide a calming sense of consistency and stability in the child’s life.  Many of our children have been able to develop a relationship with their dog unlike  the humans in their lives.

Some autistic children will never be able to physically show affection due to sensory issues. However, this does not mean that they cannot express it through speech, writing, or alternative forms of communication.

Assistance dogs allow autistic children to increase their participation and functional levels in everyday activities by providing a greater connection to their external environment, and a stronger ability to form social relationships and behavioral skills.  The ability of our dogs to calm the children results in an increased attention span and a greater aptitude for learning. A service dog can also ease a child’s fear and anxiety due to environmental changes and other triggers, resulting in reduced feelings of anger and aggression.

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Our assistance dogs are known to: 

   Read Parent to Parent

 

*   Calm children who couldn’t sleep alone prior to being partnered with their dog, ^

*   Break the repetitive behaviors of the child, through distraction.

*   Enable children to work on touching and being touched

* , As a way for the children to work on verbal communication by using the dog’s commands. 

*  Overall, children develop a greater sensitivity toward the needs and feelings of their assistance dog and others.

 

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