Horse therapy is an alternative autism treatment.
According to Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and research in autism, autism is a term used to describe a group of brain disorders that present varying behavioral signs in differing levels of intensity. Signs of autism include problems engaging in verbal and social behavior.
Types
Horse therapy for kids diagnosed with autism generally comes in two forms, according to the Aspen Education Group. Horse therapy options are hippotherapy and therapeutic riding).
Features
Hippotherapy means horse therapy, from the Greek "hippo," meaning horse. Hippotherapy involves supervision by a licensed medical specialist. Therapeutic riding, on the other hand, is not supervised by medical specialists and is really a recreational event.
Verbal Skills
Hippotherapy may be used with speech and language therapy to help autistic kids use verbal skills.
Social Skills
Hippotherapy may also help autistic children develop social skills. This results, in part, because autistic children form emotional attachments with the horses they ride in hippotherapy.
Warning
Hippotherapy should not be used as a replacement for a full medical treatment program in autistic children. Expert hippotherapist and speech-language pathologist Ruth Dismuke-Blakely advises that horse therapy may overstimulate some autistic kids, according to CNN.com.
Tags: autistic children, autistic kids, help autistic, Horse therapy, Skills Hippotherapy