La intervención asistida con caballos mejora las competencias establecidas en el currículo de educación infantil en una niña con trastorno del espectro autista

Resum

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder that begins early in childhood and affects how a person acts and interacts with others, communicates, and learns. Therefore, students with ASD have difficulties to achieve key skills that established the Pre-school Education. There is currently no one standard treatment for ASD, and hence, it is necessary to develop complementary strategies to promote physical and mental health. Horse-assisted therapy (HAT) uses the horse as a source of motivation that opens alternative ways to stimulate and communicate children with ASD, increasing the child\'s ability to grow and learn new skills. In the present study, we analyzed whether the HAT helps to achieve education competences in a 7-years-old girl diagnosed with ASD. The participant underwent six HAT sessions during 3 months that involved interactions with horses, therapeutic horseback riding, and equine-assisted learning with visual localization and fine-motor exercises. After recording the HAT sessions, we assessed and quantified several indicators in the psychopedagogic, communication and psychomotor areas. Our results showed a significant improvement in her personal autonomy as well as in her self-knowledge and her environment. It was noteworthy the enormously positive impact observed in the girl’s attention that led to improve the understanding and execution of orders. Our study supports the use of HAT in child with autism to achieve key education competences