Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
This study explored the benefits of an equine-assisted interactive vaulting OT program for children with disabilities. Interventions included activities that fostered emotional regulation, communication, and teamwork. Statistically significant improvements in eight areas of executive function were identified by instructor ratings. Parent interviews revealed themes of broadening social and emotional understanding and improving relations, social confidence, and budding friendships.
Primary Author and Speaker: Heather Panczykowski
Additional Authors and Speakers: Amy Godfrey, Autumn Pilgreen, Mary Vieregge, and Lynne Murphy
PURPOSE: Children with disabilities experience emotional and behavioral challenges that adversely affect self-awareness, judgment, decision-making, and emotional regulation. These challenges have damaging collateral effects on the development of adaptive behaviors including communication and social skills. This study explored the effects of a collaborative interactive vaulting (IV) program on executive function to address these challenges. IV is an equine-assisted activity and therapy (EAA) in which individuals work in groups to solve problems inherent in groundwork and gymnastic-like activities on horseback. Benefits of EAA have been documented in self-regulation, social functioning, and self-esteem, but have not explored the benefits of integrating occupational therapy into this EAA.
DESIGN: This convergent mixed-methods pilot study utilized a pretest-posttest design without a control group. Ten children, with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, participated in the program. All were ambulatory and able to follow directions. One weekly 60-minute session was facilitated by an equine instructor and occupational therapist for 16 weeks.
METHOD: The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, 2nd ed. (BRIEF-2) assessed behavioral, cognitive, and emotional functions in children, with separate pre and post-testing for parents and IV instructor. Resulting data was compared using paired samples t-tests. Semi-structured parent interviews after the program provided qualitative data for phenomenological analysis. Through three rounds of coding by five researchers, final themes emerged. Qualitative and quantitative results were considered together to identify the program outcomes.
RESULTS: Positive trends were noted in 46% of the subscales of the BRIEF-2 parent ratings but were not statistically significant. BRIEF-2 IV instructor rating changes were statistically significant in 80% of the subscale categories, including inhibit, self-monitoring, emotional shift and control, initiate, working memory, plan and organize scales. Statistically significant results were also found in broad categories of Behavioral and Emotional Rating Indexes. Analysis of interview data revealed positive trends identified by parents. Three themes of the children's performance emerged, namely broadening social and emotional understanding (diminishing egocentricity and putting other's needs first), improving relations with peers and family (attending and helping others), increasing social confidence (becoming braver in social situations) and budding friendships (showing attachment to other children in the group).
CONCLUSION: The positive behaviors reported by parents encompassed a larger time span and more inclusive settings than those seen during the weekly sessions. Therefore, there were positive benefits, but these were described in more global attitudes and behaviors by the parents, compared to the time limited sessions reported by the IV instructor.
IMPACT STATEMENT: The results of this study integrating OT into an IV program offers preliminary evidence that professional collaborations have the potential to facilitate greater change in results, promote personal and team interactions of children in IV, and can maximize the therapeutic benefits of working as a team. This pilot study lends support to further investigation into the efficacy of integrating occupational therapy into equine assisted activity models.
References
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