Terapia Assistida por Animais (TAA) e deficiência mental : análise do desenvolvimento psicomotor

Abstract

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is used by health professionals to promote emotional, affectivity, cognitive, social and phisical development by animal-human interaction. AAT can use different animals and be indicated for several needs, as Mental Deficiency (MD). The objective of this study was to verify the effect of animals intervention (AAT) in the psychomotor development of children with MD. The used drawing was the experimental type with control groups. Twelve children ranging from 9 to 13 years of age were divided into two groups, separate in two groups at random, control group (CG) and experimental group (EG), that frequent the same specialized school institution. The established criteria for formation of the groups were: diagnosis of MD, the same economic level and do not present animals fear. The psychomotor development was evaluated by the following instruments: Motor evaluation of Rosa Neto; structured interview for survey of the participants' emotional aspects; structured interview for survey of the psychomotor and emotional aspects directed to the responsible individuals; and field diary. The procedure for the data collection was developed in the following stages: a- groups formation (experimental group-animals and professional intervention A group; and control group: 1- professional intervention without animals B group; 2- without intervention- C group); b- initial evaluation (motor evaluation and interviews with participants and responsible individuals from the three groups); cintervention with post-fact recordings (field diary) and d- final evaluation (motor revaluation and interviews with participants and responsible individuals). AAT was executed with two small dogs. The data were analyzed in a quantitative way and represented in graphs and tables. For the qualitative analysis, it was accomplished through the recordings obtained in the field diary and analysis of the answers of the interviews. The data were analyzed in an individual way and a comparison between control and experimental groups was made. It was concluded that AAT brings benefits to individuals with MD regarding the motor development, motivation and care with living beings.