Effect of Animal-Assisted Therapy on issues related to motor performance and socioaffective interaction of a teen with cerebral palsy: a case study

Abstract

Introduction: Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive injury sequel which occurred in the pre-, peri- or post-natal affecting the central nervous system development. The Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is presented as an alternative treatment complementary to physical therapy where the animal is part of this, although still unknown by most people. Objective: To analyze the effect of the TAA on issues related to motor performance and socioaffective interaction of a teen with cerebral palsy. Method: A research with quantitative and qualitative approach was conducted. The subject was a teenager with quadriparetic spastic cerebral palsy. The instruments used were the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88) and a semi-structured interview adapted to adolescents’ legal guardian. Results: We identified improvement in motor performance with pre- (52.53%) and post-therapy (58.32%) scores; and in the socioaffective issues reported by the participant’s mother in the interviews. Conclusion: It was observed that the intervention used is a therapeutic resource capable of improving the teenager’s motor performance as well as socioaffective issues.