Animals and children go together. From the time they’re born, children wear clothes, sleep on sheets, and have cribs and rooms decorated with bunnies, frogs, bears, kittens and puppies, cuddle their stuffed animals, and play with plastic animals in the bath. Psychiatrist Aaron Katcher reported that 94 percent of books used to teach young American children language use animals.12 One study indicated that children said dog and cat more than any other words except mama and daddy or their equivalents.13 Some even have the audacity to say dog before saying Ma.14

Children with autism have impairments in communication and in forming social relationships. Surprisingly, there are anecdotal reports of children with autism forming close relationships with pets. During in-depth interviews, these young children with autism displayed behaviors toward their pet that they rarely, if ever, displayed toward humans. In spite of the strong dislike by all subjects to be touched or hugged, they evidently enjoyed the tactile comfort of their pets. Pets were sought out for companionship, comfort, and confiding in ways never shown to family members. They also displayed greater sensitivity toward the needs and feelings of the animals, together with a lack of anger and aggression.15

According to the Fox Valley Humane Association, studies reveal that pets can raise a child’s IQ scores, cognitive and social skills, as well as help that child to develop compassion and self-esteem.16

The Delta Society cites the following studies17:

• Children who own pets are more involved in activities such as sports, hobbies, clubs or chores (Melson, 1990).
• Children exposed to pets during the first year of life have a lower frequency of allergic rhinitis and asthma (Hesselmar, 1999).
• Children who had a dog present during physical exams showed lower heart rate, blood pressure and behavioral distress than when the dog was not present (Nadgengast, 1997, Baun, 1998).
• Children who own pets score significantly higher on empathy and prosocial orientation scales than non-owners (Vidovic, 1999).
• Positive self-esteem of children is enhanced by owning a pet (Bergensen, 1989).
• Contact with pets develops nurturing behavior in children who may grow to be more nurturing adults (Melson, 1990).

y A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.

--Robert Benchley

A major problem for children with disabilities of various kinds is that other children and adults often avoid them. However, researchers have shown that when a service dog accompanies a wheelchair-bound child, the child receives friendly glances, smiles, and conversations. In one study at a school, half of all those who passed wheelchair-bound children accompanied by service dogs sent friendly glances their way, compared to only 20 percent of those walking past children without dogs. At a mall, about a quarter of those walking past smiled at a child and dog together, while not a single child without a dog got a smile.18

Caring for babies and young children is associated in children’s minds with “women’s work,” but there is no such gender association when it comes to caring for pets, so it is particularly useful training for the development of nurturance in boys.19

The Orange County (California) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sponsors a summer Canine Literacy project that allows students to build confidence by reading aloud in front of a friendly, non-judgmental canine audience. Literacy specialists know that children who are below their peers in reading skills can be intimidated by reading aloud in a group, have lower self-esteem, and view reading as a chore. The Orange County program targets child development centers, which serve mostly low-income children and English learners, and has demonstrated that therapy animals can help improve the reading skills of children.20

For many children today, pets are more likely to be part of growing up than are siblings or fathers. It is estimated that as high as 90% of children are likely to live with one or more pets at some time between birth and adulthood.21

Suze Brooks, a clinical psychologist at Green Chimneys, has ferrets, guinea pigs, and rabbits in her office to provide the comfort of soft touch for her young patients. She says, “…the ones I like are the ones that lie on your chest, because our children haven’t been touched enough in healthy ways, and they need that clean, good, physical touch that we all need as human beings.” She hopes that children who’ve never had “good enough parenting” can be reparented through sleeping curled up with a dog or through touch with other animals.22

Footnotes:

12  Katcher, A. H. and Beck, A. M., “Health and Caring for Living Things” in Animals and People Sharing the Word, ed. Andrew Rowan, published for Tufts University, University Press of New England, 1988.

13  Katherine Nelson, “Structure and Strategy in Learning to Talk,” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 38, no. 149 (1973).

14  Dr. Jonica Newby, The Animal Attraction: Humans and their Animal Companions, (Sydney, Australia: ABC Books), 1997, p. 134.

15  June McNicholas & Gly M. Collis, Relationships between Young People with Autism and Their Pets,” Dept. of Psychology (University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands, Coventry, West Midlands, UK) in Health Benefits of Animals, Delta Society, Renton, WA.

16  Fox Valley Humane Association, Appleton, WI,

17  “Healthy Reasons to have a Pet,” Delta Society,

18 Gail F. Melson, Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children,” (Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 125-6. Similar effects of friendly dog presence have been found with unsighted adults (Alyse Zee, “Guide Dogs and Their Owners: Assistance and Friendship,” in Katcher and Beck, New Perspectives on Our Lives with Companion Animals, pp. 472-483) and with wheelchair-bound adults (J. Eddy, Lynette A. Hart, and R. P. Boltz, “The Effects of Service Dogs on Social Acknowledgments of People in Wheelchairs,” Journal of Social Psychology 122 [1998]: 39-45; and Lynette A. Hart, Ben L. Hart, and Bonnie Bergin, “Socializing Effects of Service Dogs for People with Disabilities,” Anthrozoös 1 [1987]: 41-44).

19  “Fostering Inter-Connectedness with Animals and Nature: The Developmental Benefits for Children,” Health Benefits of Animals, (Renton, WA.: Delta Society), p. 16.

20  “Canine Literacy Project,” Animal Guardian, Winter 2003, p. 17.

21  Michael Robin, Robert ten Bensel, Joseph S. Quigley, and Robert K. Anderson, “Childhood Pets and the Psychosocial Development of Adolescents,” in Aaron H. Katcher and Alan M. Beck, eds. New Perspectives on Our Lives with Companion Animals (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983), pp. 436-448.

22  Gail F. Melson, Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children,” (Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 103.