Animal Assisted Therapy After Pediatric Brain Injury: Mediators and Moderators of Treatment Response.

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati90 enrolled

Overview

Children requiring inpatient rehabilitation treatment following acquired brain injury (ABI) are at risk for poor engagement in rehabilitative therapies. A within subject crossover design will be used to determine whether involving dogs in physical and occupational therapies while receiving inpatient rehabilitation improves patient engagement, how involving dogs improves engagement, and identify who is most likely to benefit. This project addresses the critical need to establish an evidence base for animal-assisted therapies in pediatric rehabilitation, incorporates innovative methods, and has the potential to lead to improved clinical care for children and adolescents receiving intensive rehabilitation following ABI.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Brain Injuries

Interventions

Patients enrolled in the study will be randomly scheduled to have a dog be a part of their PT and OT sessions on two days (one in the first week and one in the second week) during their stay. On these days, the therapist will lead the therapy session and integrate the dog at whatever level is appropriate based on the patient's level of functioning and therapy goals.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 4 YearsMax age: 24 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis: Participants must be admitted to the inpatient rehabilitation unit for treatment of an acquired brain injury (TBI, brain tumor, infection, etc). * Consent: The family must provide informed consent by parents or legal guardians. * Assent: The child/adolescent must provide a signature indicating assent to participate in the study. * Age at the time of screening: 4-21 years old * Sex: includes both males and females * Responsiveness: Rancho score greater than 2 at the time of enrollment (as noted in the medical chart). Exclusion Criteria: * Allergies: Patient has a significant allergy to dogs * Fear: Patient has a significant fear of dogs * Disease: Participant is on contact precautions or has a communicable disease that may pose a risk to the dog or dog handler or has a compromised immune system where interacting with the dog and/or handler would be of significant risk to the patient. * Medical History: History of developmental delay prior to ABI. * Behavioral History: Participant or family has a history of animal abuse or cruelty. * Responsiveness: Rancho score of 2 or less

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Patient Participation/engagement

Patient engagement/participation will be assessed via the Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale (PRPS) is a 6-item Likert-type, clinician-rated measure that quantifies observed patient participation/engagement in their therapy sessions. Therapists will report their observations regarding patient's completion of exercises, effort applied to exercises, and level of support needed to complete activities.