Do animal ‘perceive’ disabilities? A comparative study of guinea pig behaviours interacting with children whith autism spectrum dosorders and children with typical development - Université de Rennes Accéder directement au contenu
Poster De Conférence Année : 2014

Do animal ‘perceive’ disabilities? A comparative study of guinea pig behaviours interacting with children whith autism spectrum dosorders and children with typical development

Résumé

This study aimed to determine whether a companion animal behave differently according to the behavioural particularities of its partners. To test this hypothesis, we studied guinea pig behaviours when encounter either children with typical development or children with ASD. Indeed, ASD are characterized by behavioral characteristics depending of their difficulties in sensory processing, social interactions and communication. We used a standardized situation called the Strange Animal Situation test. We focused on three moments - before the beginning of the guinea pig-child interaction, the beginning and the end of the interaction – to record guinea pig and child behaviours. We also recorded the initiator of the beginning and the end of the interaction, the guinea pig gaze direction and the presence of guinea pig vocalizations. Our results showed that guinea pigs behave differently with children with ASD or with children with typical development at beginning and at the end of an interaction and conversely, children with ASD did not behave in the same way as children with typical development. Even if the children remained the principal initiators of these both moments, guinea pigs ended more often interactions with children with ASD than with children with typical development, displaying specific behaviours. These results support our hypothesis that animal may perceive human disabilities and adapt their behaviors accordingly. Altogether, our results suggest that behaviors displayed by children with ASD may be more difficult for the animals to decode than those displayed by children with typical development – an alternative view of interactions between animals and children with ASD, adapted from Redefer & Goodman (1989).
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Dates et versions

hal-01345046 , version 1 (13-07-2016)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01345046 , version 1

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Marine Grandgeorge, Elodie Dubois, Yannig Bourreau, Martine Hausberger. Do animal ‘perceive’ disabilities? A comparative study of guinea pig behaviours interacting with children whith autism spectrum dosorders and children with typical development. ISAZ Conference "Animal and humans together: integration in society", Jul 2014, Vienne, Austria. ⟨hal-01345046⟩
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