Development and Evaluation of a Novel Imitation-based Dog Assisted Intervention, 'DIAD Training', to Increase Joint Activity and Social Wellbeing for Adolescents With Developmental Disabilities.

This R21 application will provide a multidisciplinary One Health approach to DAID physical activity intervention for adolescents with developmental disabilities and their family dog. The novel intervention approach includes the use of the family dog in an established dog training protocol, focused on physical activity and aimed at improving physical activity, quality of life and social wellbeing for children with and without developmental disabilities. Recent pilot work has revealed physical and social-emotional improvements in children with developmental disabilities following an animal assisted intervention. There has been relatively limited research focused on the physical activity of adolescents with developmental disabilities and there remains a critical need to develop strategies that will encourage an active lifestyle for adolescents with and without developmental disabilities. Animal assisted therapy has known positive impacts on morale and is also known to reduce depressive psychological symptoms for children and adults. Yet, traditional 'service dogs' are prohibitively expensive for many families. Dog ownership alone is known to improve health-related physical activity. Thus, a critical need exists to create physical activity interventions that are easily accessible and provide manageable home-based physical activity adherence, but that are less expensive than traditional service dogs. To achieve these goals the investigators of this project have developed the following specific aims: 1) To develop and evaluate a novel DAID dog training program to promote physical activity in children with and without developmental disabilities; 2) To determine what impact participation in a DAID dog-training program has on the child's quality of life, feelings of social wellbeing and the child-dog relationship. The long term goal of this research is to improve the lives of adolescents with and without developmental disabilities. This research supports the One Health initiative and brings together aspects of improving health related to human and animal development.