Autistic sociality: challenging representations of autism and human-animal interactions

PurposeThe objective of this synthesis research was to explore representations of autism and human-animal interactions (HAI) in the health sciences literature and the implications for autistic children and their families.MethodsGuided by critical interpretive synthesis methods proposed by Dixon-Woods et al. (2006), we synthesized and examined how autism and HAI were described in the health sciences literature and explored assumptions and goals underlying HAI as an intervention.ResultsAcross 47 reviewed articles, animals were represented as therapeutic objects whose purpose from a biomedical perspective was to address "problematic" behaviours and "deficits" in social functioning and development. HAI was employed as a therapy to address improvements in these problematic behaviours in the majority of studies. Relational and social aspects of HAI were present but not explicitly discussed. An alternative perspective proposed by Olga Solomon positioned autistic sociality as one form of diverse human socialities that can be embraced, rather than held problematic and in need of being normalized.ConclusionsImplications for HAI in rehabilitation include recognizing the multiple purposes of animals in a child's life, not only the therapeutic goal of normalizing functioning. Animals can be considered agents that engage with humans and have multiple purposes in the lives of autistic children. Recognizing and valuing the types of relationships formed between children and animals as agents, each with social standing opens new areas of research and healthcare that can be explored.Future research can challenge medical autism discourses toward different ways of understanding social functioning as sociality.Rehabilitation can promote the rich experience that autistic children have with animals as valuable and beneficial in its own right, and not only for the therapeutic goal of normalizing social functioning.