The Psychosocial Effect of Therapeutic Activities With Dolphins for Children With Disabilities

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the results of the psychosocial effect of therapeutic activities with dolphins for children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism. Research was carried out in the Dolphin Assisted Therapy Center. Ten families raising children with disabilities took part in this research. Methods: Chandler’s Psychosocial Session Form, interviews before, two weeks and one month after therapeutic activities with dolphins. The research results brought to the light statistically significant changes in the psychoemotional and behavioral patterns for children with qualitative differences depending on child’s diagnostic characteristics. The greater positive results were noted by parents, as well as statistically significant measured in autism, but the least in Down syndrome case. The research results revealed that parents shaped their expectations on the impact of therapeutic activities basing on the normalization perspective. Narrative results revealed that all parents raising children with disabilities had needs of re-establishing the inner sense of coherence of the whole family system.

Analysis of EEG Signals in a Patient with Spastic Cerebral Palsy Undergone Dolphin-Assisted Therapies

“…Dolphin trainer supervises the behavior of dolphin while therapist places dolphin in certain parts of the patient body, especially those points that are located on the patient skull. Since a patient is introduced into the water, his/her motor exercises begin to stimulate the movement of the joints and effort in the muscles for carrying out a treatment focused on diseases that attack the central nervous system, regardless of the type of therapies [41], [42], [43]. Moreover, these exercises are performed as a warm-up before DAT and generate trust between patient and therapist, a crucial element during therapies.…”

Non-Parametric Evaluation Methods of the Brain Activity of a Bottlenose Dolphin during an Assisted Therapy

“…Since being a therapy without standards fully established by pathology, there are findings by Richard et al, Kreiviniene et al and Griffioen and Enders-Slegers in [18][19][20] that have variations in the procedures applied to patients, the number of therapists and/or specialists, time and periodicity of the sessions, as well as the selection of the dolphin and type of training to achieve therapeutic effects.…”