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Visual Exploration and Observation of Real-Life Interactions Between Children with ASD and Service Dogs

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Abstract

Two original studies explored relationships between visual attention of children with ASD (candidates for receiving a service dog) and their behaviors during their first interaction with a service dog. The first study consisted in video behavioural analyses of 16 children with ASD interacting with a service dog. During the interaction with a service dog, the time children with ASD spent looking towards social items vs objects was associated with how they interacted with the service dog. The second study was exploratory (i.e. 6 children), using the same behavioural approach but coupled with eye-tracking data. The more children with ASD looked at both their parent and the evaluator, as opposed to inanimate items, the more they interacted with the service dog.

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Notes

  1. It is important to specify that dogs used in the present study were not service dog per se, since they were not dogs matched and living with a child (Solomon et al., 2010; https://petpartners.org/learn/terminology/; https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm), but were dogs by the end of their training and on the edge of becoming service dogs. However, for the sake of clarity, we will label them as service dogs in the rest of the manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the Mira Foundation (Québec) and the EthoS laboratory (France) for their material and logistical support as well as to Adrienne & Pierre Sommer Foundation and Mitacs for their financial support. We are very grateful to Véronique Guyot for her statistical help and Ann Cloarec for English proofreading. We owe special thanks to Eric Saint-Pierre, creator of the Mira Foundation, and Nicolas Saint-Pierre, general director of the Mira Foundation, who allowed us to have access to their facilities and made the present study possible. We gratefully thank Alexandre Herbin for his previous work at the Mira Foundation. We gratefully thank all the psychoeducators (Sandrine Larivière, Charlotte Moses Belanger, Isabelle Chauvin) and all the staff at the Mira Foundation for helping us to conduct this research, for their cooperation, and for their work. Finally, we thank all the families and children with ASD for their participation in this study as well as all the dogs.

Funding

The project leading to these results received financial support from Adrienne & Pierre Sommer Foundation. It benefited also from a postdoctoral grant by the Mitacs Elevation program (IT 10105). It also received material and logistical support from the Mira Foundation (Québec) and the EthoS laboratory (France).

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Author notes

  1. Nicolas Dollion and Manon Toutain contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Éthologie Animale et Humaine) - UMR 6552, 35000, Rennes, France

    Nicolas Dollion, Manon Toutain & Marine Grandgeorge

  2. Laboratoire d’Observation et d’Éthologie Humaine du Québec, Research Centre, Montral Mental Health University Institute, CIUSSS Est, Montreal, Canada

    Nicolas Dollion & Pierrich Plusquellec

  3. School of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Nicolas Dollion & Pierrich Plusquellec

  4. Fondation Mira, 1820 Rang Nord-Ouest, Sainte-Madeleine,, QC, Canada

    Nicolas Dollion, Nathe François & Noël Champagne

  5. Laboratoire Ethos, UMR 6552, B008, Station Biologique de Paimpont, 35380, Paimpont, France

    Nicolas Dollion

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Contributions

M.G., P.P. and N.D. developed the research project and designed the experiment; N.C., N.F. and N.D. organized the recruitment of subjects; N.C., N.F. and N.D. gathered the video database; M.T. and N.D. performed the analyses; M.G., M.T. and N.D. contributed to the statistical analysis; M.T., M.G. and N.D. wrote the manuscript and all authors proofread the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nicolas Dollion.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical Approval

Both these studies were observational, non-invasive, and did not involve pharmacological interventions for either the children with ASD or the service dogs. Both were performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and both study protocols received approval by the University of Montreal’s Research Ethics committee in Education and Psychology (Study 1: CERAS-2018–19-11-D; Study 2: CEREP-19–130-P).

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All parents provided written consent to allow their child with ASD to participate in this study. All children with ASD also provided their verbal and written approval for their participation.

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Dollion, N., Toutain, M., François, N. et al. Visual Exploration and Observation of Real-Life Interactions Between Children with ASD and Service Dogs. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 3785–3805 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05293-1

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