Objectives: Animal-assisted therapy with dogs is regularly used in children with behavioural and developmental disorders. Aims of this systematic review were threefold: to analyse the methodological quality of studies on dog-assisted therapy (DAT) for children with behavioural and developmental disorders, to determine to which extent the studies on DAT adhere to the quality criteria developed by the International Association of Human Animal Interaction Organisation (IAHAIO) and to describe the characteristics of the participants, the intervention and the outcomes. Method: Three databases (i.e. PsycInfo, MedLine and Eric) were searched, and 14 studies on DAT were included. The Joanna Briggs Institute checklist (JBIC) and the quality criteria developed by the IAHAIO were used during data extraction. Characteristics of the participants, the intervention, the therapy dogs and the outcomes of the studies were summarised. Results: Six of the 14 included studies reported significant outcomes of DAT, whereof six in the social domain and two in the psychological domain. However, scores on the JBIC indicated low to moderate methodological quality and only three of the included studies adhered to the IAHAIO quality criteria. Conclusions: DAT is a promising intervention for children with behavioural and developmental disorders, especially for children with autism spectrum disorder. A clear description of the therapy’s components, the role of the therapy dog and analysis of the treatment integrity and procedural fidelity would improve the methodological quality of the studies and the field of dog-assisted interventions.

Early intensive behavioral intervention is generally effective for children with autism spectrum disorder but is associated with variability in treatment outcome and quality of treatment delivery may contribute to this. This study examined the relationship between therapist personality, attitude toward individuals with a disability, and perceived relationship between therapist and child on procedural fidelity. Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) was provided at a preschool for children with intellectual disabilities. Seventy DTT sessions between 22 therapists and 35 children were videotaped and analyzed. Data on therapist's attitude toward individuals with a disability, therapist's personality traits, and perceived relationship between therapist and child were also collected. Procedural fidelity was high and significantly related to therapist's attitude toward individuals with a disability, therapist's openness to experience, and perceived relationship between therapist and child. Therapists with high ...

Forensic psychiatric inpatients are frequently exposed to aggression from fellow patients during their treatment, but research on how this impacts patients’ well-being and treatment progress is lacking. In this study, we interviewed nine patients on their experiences of victimization during mandatory psychiatric treatment. The interviews were analyzed using a Grounded Theory approach combined with elements from Consensual Qualitative Research and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three main themes emerged from the data, namely situational descriptives, intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences. Patients were not only exposed to both physical violence and verbal aggression by other patients, but also to a more ubiquitous flow of micro-aggressive comments. Options to escape these situations were limited. This means that victimization processes, which for most patients started much earlier in life, continue during forensic psychiatric treatment. Intrapersonal consequences include fear, hypervigilance, reactive aggression, flashbacks and avoidance and withdrawal. Interpersonal consequences include increased power differences between patients and adverse treatment consequences, such as difficulties with self-esteem. Victimization processes are not always timely noticed in an environment that focuses on risks and treatment of delinquent behavior. A higher level of trauma sensitivity in forensic mental health care is thus required. Recommendations for the implementation of trauma informed care are provided.

This study investigates the understanding of intentions in 100 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID; mean IQ 36) between 2 and 10 years of age. A within-subject design with two conditions was used. In the target condition, the experimenter successfully performed the task; while in the unfulfilled attempt condition, the experimenter attempted but did not successfully completed the task. Children with ASD and ID completed the tasks significantly more frequent and showed less off-task behavior in the target condition than in the unsuccessful attempt condition, which might indicate that children with ASD and ID experience difficulty in understanding the intentions of others. Successful completion of the task after an unsuccessful attempt is predicted by the ability to imitate and behavioral inflexibility and is associated with better performance on receptive and expressive language tests. The latter results are in line with several other studies suggesting a relation between the understanding of intentions and early social communication and language.