Gauge piles on top of Finn during his session. Animal-assisted therapy is used in addition to traditional therapy, and patients can often recognize greater results through their interactions with an animal. COURTNEY KUHLEN PHOTO
Gauge works like a dog
Speech-language pathologist employs her golden retriever to reach children
By JESSICA BAUER
LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER
(taken from the Log Cabin Democrat, the local paper in Conway, Arkansas)
Studies show pets can reduce their owner's blood pressure and improve overall health, and Kindra Schrader, speech-language pathologist at Conway Therapy Services, is putting that notion to work.
Schrader uses her 3-year-old golden retriever, Gauge, as a helpful tool in speech therapy.
"It's kind of another tool that any therapist can use," Schrader said. "Physical therapists or occupational therapists can use an animal in therapy to help either motivate the patient or help with the therapy."
Schrader said animal-assisted therapy is fairly new to Conway.
"He plays with my patients, but I also use him as a tool," Schrader said. "If I didn't have him, I would use a game or something else. For instance, if I didn't have a doll, I would have the patients point to his eyes or nose."
She only uses Gauge at work a few times a week, but said she is hoping to make pet therapy a common practice.
"I want to get more patients interested in working with me and the dog," Schrader said. "My goal is to become a certified evaluator so I can get more people certified in the area."
In her sessions, Schrader said she does language and articulation therapy. She said this type of therapy can be boring for young kids, but they always seem to get excited when they see Gauge enter the room.
"If I'm working on sounds with them, I'll use him and his ball," Schrader said. "I attach their cards to his ball and have him retrieve it for them."
She added she uses Gauge with kids who have autism, Down syndrome, Asperger's Syndrome and mental retardation.
In 1997, a study was done that proved kids with Down syndrome can be more attentive with pet therapy, she said, and responded better to a real dog rather than a stuffed animal.
"These kids are less social and less likely to have those pragmatic skills where they'll play or interact with other people," Schrader said. "When you bring a pet around, these patients are more social and show less of those self-absorbed behaviors."
Schrader said one specific example of Gauge being a big help was with a patient who would never talk in complete sentences.
"I could work with him over and over and he would be frustrated," Schrader said. "When I brought Gauge in, he immediately wanted to play with him so I told him Gauge could only do what he wanted when he spoke to him in full sentences."
Schrader said the use of pet therapy provided immediate progress for this patient.
"That kind of helps me, too, because it will calm my patients down and they will be more likely to want to interact with me," Schrader said.
Not just any dog can be a therapist, however. Schrader said Gauge had to prove his tolerance before becoming certified.
"He had to pass a skills and aptitude test where he had to follow all commands and he had to be able to withstand a certain amount of stress," Schrader said. "Strangers would come pull on his tail and ears and he had to stand there and be OK with that."
She added he also had to be able to tolerate people yelling in the room and someone walking across the room with a walker.
Both Schrader and Gauge had to pass a test through the Delta Society before beginning this practice.
