The special-needs teacher ambles into the classroom to meet another new student. She's walked to the ramp where the boy waits countless times before. Each time, she's there to make a fresh connection with someone for whom connections don't always come easily.
The teacher is a 20-year-old quarter horse named Scarlet. The student is a 5-year-old boy, Paul, who has autism. He's my son.
Paul, who loves hugs and kisses, is learning to read and can count to 100. He adores animals, especially horses. Any time he goes to a petting zoo, he lights up just being near them.
But Paul also compulsively flaps his hands or wiggles his fingers. Standing still is tough for him; he'd rather jump in place. He speaks at a 3-year-old's level and often repeats a question rather than answer it. He has poor fine-motor skills. He watches other children but doesn't join them. When he does, it's with roughhousing that's often too rough — he doesn't know another way to play. Paul doesn't have friends.
For me, the worry nearly every mother experiences about her child being accepted and loved is magnified tenfold. In searching for something Paul could feel a part of, I discovered a group that brings horses and people with disabilities together. I found hope in SIRE, a nonprofit that operates three therapeutic equestrian centers for children and adults in greater Houston.
For the past seven years, a red-dirt corral at Sienna Stables near Missouri City has served as Scarlet's classroom. The 15-hands-tall chestnut is one of dozens of horses that work with SIRE, which offers riding instruction to both the mentally and physically disabled.
"She really does care about her riders. She knows who's on her back," says Joelle Devlin, who has been with SIRE for 18 years. "She turns her ears back to check on her rider. … She stops if her rider gets off balance."
Balance is an important element of therapeutic riding, or hippotherapy. Devlin explains that the side-to-side motion of a horse's gait promotes body awareness and addresses vestibular, or inner ear, issues. She touts the improved muscle tone and concentration that come with therapeutic riding. She describes how perfect alignment and posture on horseback stimulate the entire central nervous system, which in turn promotes "motor planning" in the brain. In my son's autistic brain.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Therapeutic riding for autism
Monday, May 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Some Autism Horse Therapy Links
| Ride On program gets permanent home in Chatsworth Ventura County Star For days, volunteers and staff members had been moving records, therapy program props, horse tack and outdoor furniture to the new grounds. ... |
| 'Tea On The Lawn' Fundraiser to Benefit New Danville Woodlands Online, LLC During last year‚s inaugural event, the attendance of over 75 proper Southern ladies helped to raise over $4800 for New Danville‚s miniature horse therapy ... |
| Horse therapy offers steady gait to success Horse therapy offers steady gait to success ... Cameron, now 11, was diagnosed at age 2 as severe on the autism spectrum. While working with her son in that ... |
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| therapy .::. occupational therapy and child development horse therapy autism voice therapy for low volume cognitive behavioral therapy instead of ambien natura sound therapy 1.5 natural beauty therapy ... |
Sunday, September 13, 2009
New Diagnosis? How to Help a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Step 1
Take your child for a complete medical exam. Some behavioral problems associated with autism, like temper tantrums, can sometimes be reduced if physical problems common in children with autism, such as gastrointestinal issues and allergies, are alleviated.
Step 2
Put your child on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, which means no barley, rye, oats, wheat, or dairy. Many families of children with autism have had good results – but only if the diet is followed to the letter, no exceptions.
Step 3
Get your child started on speech therapy as soon as possible. If your child is nonverbal, try PECS, which stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. This technique, which uses picture cards, may encourage them to speak.
Step 4
Get your child sensory-integration therapy, which has been proven effective in helping children with autism become less sensitive to light, sound, and touch.
Step 5
Hire an occupational therapist to help them with skills they’ll need for an independent life. Depending on the child, this can be anything from physical coordination to anger management.
Step 6
Use applied behavioral analysis, or ABA, the only intervention approved by the Surgeon General’s Office. ABA is a one-on-one approach to teaching children how to react appropriately to everyday social situations with the help of rewards. Parents can either hire an ABA-trained therapist or learn the technique themselves.
Step 7
Try other therapies. Most children with autism benefit from a combination of treatments.
Step 8
Consider verbal behavior intervention, which is designed to develop language skills through motivation and reinforcement.
Step 9
Test the TEACCH approach, which customizes an education program to the child’s strengths and weaknesses. Because children with autism tend to be visual learners, the program is structured around visual clues.
Step 10
Consider becoming trained in Relationship Development Intervention, or RDI, which suggests everyday things parents can do at home to help their child adapt to changes and be more open to interacting with others.
Step 11
Enroll your child in school when they turn three. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that states provide special education services to children with disabilities, beginning at this age.
Step 12
Stay up-to-date on autism research; new therapies are being tested and developed all the time.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Riding school provides therapy for people with disabilities
Riding school provides therapy for people with disabilitiesBy Amy Erickson
Megan Hanno's ultimate goal is to walk again.
Special Troopers Adaptive Riding School (S.T.A.R.S.) Inc. is helping the Le Mars woman move toward that goal.
The nonprofit organization provides therapeutic techniques on horseback for people of all ages, from 18 months on, with physical, cognitive or emotional disabilities.
"In most cases just about any diagnosis qualifies," said Jessie Christopherson, S.T.A.R.S. executive director. "There's a whole lot of folks out there who could be utilizing the service and don't know they qualify."Megan, 22, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident five years ago. Since then she has had to relearn everything from swallowing to talking to walking.
Horseback riding through S.T.A.R.S. helps strengthen Megan's core muscles, the ones that help people walk, sit upright and balance, Christopherson said.
The horse's movement replicates the motion that people's pelvis and hips make when the walk on two feet, she said.
Monday afternoon Megan's mom Paula Hanno, pushed her wheelchair up a ramp to a mounting block in the S.T.A.R.S. indoor arena for Megan's weekly therapy session.
Megan said riding helps her balance.
"My abs (were) really sore," after her session the week before, she said.
"There's no way to cheat on a horse," Christopherson said. "She has to retrain her body to use muscles her brain has forgotten how to use."
As volunteer and part-time instructor, Holly Tucker, lead Brownie and Megan around the arena, Megan's constant battle was to remain upright with her chin down.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Horse Therapy in the Middle East
Autistic kids connect with innovative therapyTherapy techniques involving the use of animals in the classroom are yielding results at the Sabahat Akşıray Autistic Children’s Education Center in İzmir’s Menemen district.
[FULL]
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Horses and Humans Research Foundation
The foundation, which supports rigorous scientific research that substantiates the healing impact of horses on humans, reported that applications for funding were received from a variety of countries and represented 16 universities. The stringent selection process resulted in awards to Good Hope Equestrian Training Center in Miami, FL and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Canada.
"One in every 150 kids has autism," said Molly Sweeney, HHRF Board of Directors' president. "This pervasive development disorder can have devastating impacts on a family. The economic impact per child is estimated at $30,000 annually, and there are very few effective treatments. We are thrilled at the prospect of providing evidence of hope."
The Good Hope Equestrian Training Center is a 20-acre facility in southern Florida. Their research team will evaluate the effects of equine interaction on 7- to 12-year-old children diagnosed with autism. The research will focus on social function, attention and distractibility.
The University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres is the first grant awarded internationally by the Horses and Humans Research Foundation. The university, located 85 miles north-east of Montreal, will conduct research measuring the effect of a ten-week hippotherapy Intervention on the control of head and trunk movement of children with cerebral palsy. Eighteen subjects and their horses will be fitted with telemetry-recording accelerometers to document the speed and magnitude of the subjects' upper body and head displacement throughout the program and eight weeks after.
The Horses and Humans Research Foundation was established in 2002 to fund research that will improve equine-assisted activities/therapies (EAA/T) best practices and to increase awareness of EAA/T benefits.
There are nearly 750 EAA/T programs in the United States affiliated with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and over 40,000 participants, which represents only a portion of the programs operating nationally and internationally.
[FULL ARTICLE]
Thursday, October 23, 2008
West Tennessee - TLC Riding Academy, Inc.
- 106 Gibson Wells-Brazil Road
- Humboldt, TN 38343
- 731-559-4184
This is a charitable endeavor supported mainly by fundraisers and your charitable donations. Although the lessons cost each student $15 per hour, no rider qualified for this program will be denied services because of lack of funds.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Hippotherapy (Horse Therapy) for Autism
Horseback program focuses on autistic riders CHAMBERSBURG, PA.
Holly Bortfeld has watched her autistic son benefit greatly from therapeutic horseback riding over the last decade, but waited several years for a slot to open at the riding center for her 15-year-old daughter, who has Asperger’s syndrome.
While Greta does not communicate verbally much, her mother said the girl’s actions offer the best feedback about the new program at the Franklin County 4-H Therapeutic Riding Center.
“Every Friday, she’s dressed and ready to go,” Holly Bortfeld said.
Summit Endowment established the therapeutic riding center’s new program dedicated to autistic riders. Using contributions from Summit Health, which owns Chambersburg and Waynesboro, Pa., hospitals, the Summit Endowment distributed more than $400,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations this year.
“They’re going to be looking at how the program improves the lives of children with autism,” said Ann Spottswood, Summit Endowment manager.
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