Finding an Ally: Can Dogs Help Therapists Promote Communication in Individuals with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities?

Dear Editor,

Dog-assisted interventions have long been practiced, and there is now a considerable body of research demonstrating its efficacy, namely, to enhance communication skills in a number of populations (e.g., ^{1 –6} ). In face of this evidence, academics and clinicians involved in the research and implementation of effective communication programs for persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) cannot be but impressed with the dearth of empirical studies on these individuals. Aside from Heimlich, ⁷ investigators have not yet focused on the potential of dogs as allies to help promote communication in individuals with PIMD. Thus, to us, it seems crucial to prioritize research on dog-assisted interventions for these persons to keep up with the scientific advances that have already benefited the functional communication training of individuals with a variety of other diagnoses.

Individuals with PIMD have little or no apparent understanding of verbal language, and they primarily communicate in a non- or presymbolic way via an unconventional and idiosyncratic repertoire of behaviors. ⁸ Given their difficulties in producing readable signals, they are often left with a feeling of helplessness and incompetence, with the potential that passivity, lack of interest, frustration, boredom, and/or challenging behaviors will rapidly develop and hinder the acquisition of communicative skills. ⁹ Could dogs help therapists to promote communication in these individuals?

We propose that, in a preliminary stage, studies should be directed at assessing whether dogs—as stimuli providing multisensory stimulation in a unique interactive style—can be pleasant, attention getting, and relaxing stimuli with which these individuals can positively engage. In a following stage, studies should be designed to determine whether dogs may consistently represent preferences and could potentially be used as reinforcers when teaching cause–effect skills to individuals with PIMD. One can entertain the hypothesis that the unambiguous behaviors (e.g., barking, jumping, licking, rolling) that trained dogs can exhibit as contingent responses to potential communicative signals may be highly motivating and satisfying for, at least, certain individuals with PIMD. As a consequence, dogs' responses may help these individuals to learn that some elements of the environment may be responsive and controllable. Also, individuals may profit, from the multiple opportunities that naturally occur in the presence of the dog, to practice alternative modes of behavior (contrasting, for instance, to the loud, erratic, aggressive, or unpredictable manifestations that are common elements of the behavioral repertoire of persons with PIMD). Finally, future empirical studies could also try to relate the effects of the presence of dogs on the mood, attitude, and sensitivity of the therapists during functional communication training sessions (as proposed by Krugger and Serpell ¹⁰ ).

It is our belief that future studies, using rigorous scientific protocols, may highlight important positive aspects of dog-assisted interventions for improving communication in individuals with PIMD. Indeed, clinically speaking, we share Kruger and Serpell's view ¹⁰ in that it may be hard to imagine a better combination of attributes: a tool that can have the potential to simultaneously alert, engage, prime, and relax individuals with such profound levels of disabilities.