Posts tagged "NIH"

Plenty of parents and teachers would swear that service dogs are lifesavers for autistic kids, but in scientific circles, anecdotal evidence doesn't go very far. For that reason, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering grants worth $500,000 per year to researchers studying the impact of animals on children's health and development, reports the New York Times. The program is a partnership between the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development and the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition, a division of the Mars candy and pet-food company.

It has long been known that the presence of a pooch has a calming influence on many people, according to Pris Taylor, the director of Autism Service Dogs of America (ASDA). "Children with autism have difficulty with emotional relationships. The kids relate better to dogs. The children learn empathy," Taylor told Paw Nation. "We find kids don't have as many tantrums and meltdowns. Anecdotally, speech has increased with the presence of the dog." An autistic child may talk more not only to the dog itself, but also to other people, often about the dog. For a disease characterized by social isolation, that's huge.