Equine-assisted therapy for primary school children with physical disabilities : a psychosocial view

[摘要] This study endeavours to understand the psychosocial functioning of primary schoolchildren involved in a therapeutic horse-riding program. A qualitative study was doneusing an exploratory research design.Much research has been documented regarding the physical benefits of equineassistedtherapy. Little research has however been done regarding the psychosocialfunctioning of children involved in such projects, and in the field of social work, notmuch research has been conducted to the knowledge of the researcher. This studywas thus motivated by the current lack of research in this area and by the desire todiscover whether this form of therapy has a place within the social work field.The literature study firstly explored the various physical disabilities that are mostcommonly encountered in the therapeutic riding world, namely cerebral palsy, spinabifida, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. The developmental milestones of theprimary school child were explored with a view to how these physical disabilities mayeffect the reaching of these developmental milestones.The concept of rehabilitation psychology was then explored, comparing it withvarious social work methods, popular theories and perspectives and it was found thatthere were many overlaps in the two fields. Lastly, the literature study looked atequine-assisted therapy and research that has already been done on this topic.The empirical investigation consisted of case studies on five primary school childrenfrom Astra School for the Physically Disabled. A qualitative investigation was done,by means of a focus group held with various key team players in the therapy such asthe physiotherapists and riding instructors. Individual interviews were then heldwith each of the five children. An interview guide was used for both the focus groupand the individual interviews.The findings of the investigation were in line with what was found in the literaturestudy, namely that these physically disabled children struggled in reaching their psychosocial developmental milestones. The riding however was shown to havemade a significant contribution in the areas of social participation, confidence, selfimage,emotional control, discipline and cognitive and educational stimulation in eachof the five children concerned.Rehabilitation philosophy and psychology were found to be in line with much of whatsocial work aims to achieve. In light of the fact that equine-assisted therapy wasshown to be a viable means of rehabilitation, and therefore a viable means of reachingsocial work goals with physically disabled clients, recommendations were made interms of social work practice, social work theory, social work training, social workresearch and social work policy regarding the physically disabled client.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University