NCT06609122: AAI

Impact of AAI Dogs on Performance and Behavior of Children with Autism

Recruiting now NA Last updated 25 September 2024

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Animal Assisted Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 66 participants. Currently enrolling.

Timeline

1 April 2019

Primary endpoint
30 June 2025

31 December 2025

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	The University of Hong Kong
Phase	NA
Status	Recruiting now
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	66
Start date	1 April 2019
Primary completion	30 June 2025
Estimated completion	31 December 2025
Sites	1 location across Hong Kong

Drugs / interventions tested

• Animal Assisted Intervention

Conditions studied

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) — all drugs for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) →

Sponsor

The University of Hong Kong

Who can join

Adults 6 to 18, any sex, with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder usually diagnosed in early childhood. Children with ASD exhibit social communication and interaction problems, which may cause deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, problems with developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, and abnormal nonverbal communicative behaviors such as impaired eye contact and body language. Some children with ASD have severe behavioral problems, such as stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, and extreme distress at small changes. ASD is a complex and individualized disorder, which creates challenges in treatment.

Animal-assisted education (AAE) programmes have been introduced for children with special needs in other countries such as the United States and Australia. PAALS (Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services) in the United States have introduced the Pet a PAALS Dog programme, which assists stressed students at USC (University of South Carolina). Assistance Dogs Australia has provided an Educational Support Dog Echo to Kalinda Support School, for children with a wide range of disabilities. Existing literature indicate the benefit of animal-assisted therapy on physical, behavioral, and cognitive disabilities, especially in social and communication disorders. Formally trained human-dog teams in animal-assisted interventions (AAI) can play a unique role in social and communicative development that schools, and caregivers may not be able to provide. Interacting with animal-assisted intervention dogs can increase children with ASD\'s social interaction, communication, and effective connection. Dogs can also provide emotional support in stressful situations such as calming the child down when they have a tantrum. Moreover, animal-assisted therapy has shown to decrease stress levels, anxiety, and restrictive and repetitive behavior patterns. Dogs as pets can also bring significant improvements to caregivers of children with ASD and improve conflict management.

Based on a successful pilot trial in 2019 with 8 children showed that AAI program has a positive effect on the performance of children with ASD, The investigator proposed an observational study that tracks the effectiveness of an animal-assisted intervention programme in a local school for children with ASD and developmental disabilities.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Dog-assisted therapy on Hong Kong children with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory randomized controlled trial.
   Wong WHS, Chen C, Tso A, So HK, et al · · 2026 · PMID 41511681 · DOI 10.1007/s00431-025-06720-6