As any parent will know, encouraging your children to do what you want, when you want, can sometimes be tough! Bed-time tantrums, refusal to eat the meals you’ve lovingly prepared, toilet training troubles, teeth cleaning tears, all feature in family life from time to time.
If your child has autism – their clinical condition can mean that those sorts of challenges can take on an altogether more serious and demanding perspective. In extreme cases it can be exhausting, demoralising and impact hugely on your relationships and other children in the family.
For these families, help is at hand from an unlikely source: a project called PAWS (Parents Autism Workshops and Support) set up by Dogs for the Disabled, is about developing the potential of the family pet dog to help bring benefits to a child with autism.
The charity is now launching a fundraising appeal to help get the project off the ground.Peter Gorbing, chief executive of Dogs for the Disabled explains: “Our PAWSservice would be ground-breaking, as far as we know, there is nothing else like this in the world, but we believe it will bring a wealth of new opportunities and benefits to families that face huge challenges on a daily basis.But we are appealing to everyone out there to make a difference today; every donation will count and have a massive impact on a family nearby.”
Dogs for the Disabled is a small national charity, based in Banbury. With a team of expert trainers, it has worked wonders for over 21 years training assistance dogs to help people with disabilities, including children, in their homes and out and about. An assistance dog enables people to be independent – it radically changes their lives for the better.
For the last two years the charity has been training dogs to work with children with autism. In the course of this work, the staff have been struck by the calming effect that the dogs have on these children.
With the right support, ordinary pet dogs have the potential to transform the lives of families affected by autism.
PAWS workshops with some of these families have already begun to identify ways a pet dog can be trained to ease the strain of bringing up a child with autism.Here are a few examples - and these are still early days:
- Family walks with the dog on a dual lead allow the child to take some responsibility for the dog.
- Training the dog to interrupt unwanted behaviour by touching an arm or a leg
- A dog can cheerup a distraught child by putting its head on their lap
- Dogs need their teeth cleaning too – so why not encourage to learn about cleaning their own teeth too?
- Learning about a dog’s feeding routine helps to develop good mealtime routines with a child
- One family even found they could get their child to wear his school uniform by having the dog walk to school with them wearing a school tie too!
The PAWS service has the potential to incorporate:
- A specially devised programme of workshops to help families choose a pet dog that suits them
- Identification ofthe tasks to be done and advice on trainingthe dog
- On-line support and information, regularly updated with on-going training advice
- Parent’s discussion groups and access to professional dog trainers for ongoing support
To lift PAWS off the ground, Dogs for the Disabled needs to recruit trained staff to run the workshops and provide all the equipment and support required.Peter Gorbing again: “If we can get the project fully underway, there is a promise of more funding for the future – but we have dozens of families waiting for help and desperately need the funds to launch the scheme within the next six months.”
To help support Dogs for the Disabled call their fundraising department today on 01295 252600 or make a donation.
