The Reliability of a Video Analysis Tool to Evaluate Outcomes for Animal Assisted Therapy Involving Dogs in Children and Young People with Autism.

Researchers tested a video tool that measures how children with autism behave during therapy sessions with dogs. They found the tool gives consistent results when different people use it and when the same person uses it multiple times. The tool can reliably track social behaviors, play, and challenging behaviors during animal therapy. This means researchers can now confidently use this tool to study whether therapy dogs help children with autism.

This study evaluated the reliability of a video analysis tool (VAT-AAT) for measuring behavioral changes during animal-assisted therapy with dogs in children and young people with autism aged 3-25 years. Twenty-three occupational therapy students rated video-recorded therapy sessions twice to assess inter-rater and test-retest reliability. The tool measured verbal and non-verbal social behaviors, play behaviors, and negative behaviors. Results showed good reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.84-0.89 across simple and complex sessions.

Rater experience with children or autism did not impact reliability, though less experience with animals slightly reduced agreement. The study establishes the VAT-AAT as a reliable measurement tool for AAT research, though validity testing remains needed.

The VAT-AAT provides a standardized method for measuring behavioral changes during animal-assisted therapy research. Clinicians can have confidence in data collected using this tool, supporting evidence-based practice development in AAT interventions for autism.

Study focused only on reliability testing without establishing validity. Sample limited to occupational therapy students as raters. No information provided about participant characteristics or actual behavioral outcomes from therapy sessions.

To determine inter-rater and test-retest reliability of a video analysis tool (VAT-AAT) for evaluating changes in frequency and duration of verbal social behaviors, non-verbal social behaviors, play behaviors, and negative behaviors of children and young people aged 3-25 years with autism during animal-assisted therapy (AAT). Following recruitment and training, 23 occupational therapy students from an Australian metropolitan university rated a simple or complex video-recorded AAT session on two occasions. Expert raters determined acceptable score ranges which were compared with collected data from the raters to determine intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). ICCs were 0.84 (simple session) and 0.89 (complex session) for inter-rater reliability and 0.84 (simple session) and 0.89 (complex session) for test-retest reliability.

The percentage agreement was similar across level of session complexity and rater experience with children and autism but was lower for participants with less experience with animals (<10% difference in percentage agreement). The VAT-AAT has good inter-rater and test-retest reliability when used in AAT with children and young people with autism. Session complexity or rater experience with children or autism did not impact on the level of agreement with expert raters. Validity of the tool now needs to be established.