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Literature

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Canine-Assisted Speech Therapy for Children: Caregiver and Therapist Perspectives

We’re incredibly proud to share that our team at The Speech Express has officially published a research paper exploring the impact of canine-assisted therapy in paediatric speech pathology.

“Canine-Assisted Speech Therapy for Children: Caregiver and Therapist Perspectives” highlights what we see every day in practice — that therapy dogs are not just a lovely addition, but a powerful and purposeful part of intervention.

Our findings show that therapy dogs play a meaningful role in supporting children’s communication development.

  • They help create a safe, engaging, and non-judgmental environment where children feel more comfortable to communicate, take risks, and participate. With a therapy dog present, children demonstrated increased verbal output, longer interactions, and more frequent initiation of communication.
  • The research also found that therapy dogs can reduce anxiety and minimise avoidance behaviours, particularly for children who find traditional therapy challenging.
  • By naturally shifting the focus away from the child, therapy dogs help build rapport more quickly and encourage participation in key communication skills such as turn-taking, commenting, and using descriptive language.
  • Importantly, the study highlights that canine-assisted therapy can positively influence a wide range of communication goals, including expressive and receptive language, social communication, and pragmatic skills.

This publication represents a significant step in contributing to the evidence base behind animal-assisted therapy and reinforces the value of thoughtfully integrating therapy dogs into paediatric speech pathology practice.

We’re so excited to be part of advancing this space and continuing to support children in ways that are engaging, meaningful, and evidence-informed. Click here to download and read the research paper.

 

 

 

References

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    Animal-Assisted Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review

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