My research team and I with Temple Grandin at EMSON’s Nursing Science Day 2024

Author: Delaney Piantanida | Major: Nursing | Semester: Spring 2024

My name is Delaney Piantanida and I am going into my last semester of college at the University of Arkansas in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing (EMSON), which is within the College of Education and Health Professions (COEHP). As implied, I am majoring in nursing, and I am completing my honors research with a team under Dr. Michele Kilmer, who is part of EMSON’s faculty. My team and I have just concluded our first semester of research, focusing on the effects of animal-assisted therapy on prosocial behavior and emotional regulation in children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We plan to conclude this specific research endeavor at the end of next semester, and then after graduation I hope to work in a pediatric inpatient hospital as a registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

My team’s research studies the human-animal interaction and bonding between a therapy canine and children at risk for ASD. This is building from some of Dr. Kilmer’s previous studies surrounding animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and children with ASD, and this study specifically will compare the impact of a plush canine that looks life-like versus a live therapy canine on emotional regulation and prosocial behavior in children at risk for ASD. There is a lack of study in this area, so this project will greatly add to animal-assisted therapy research and provide significant information about therapy using a plush canine versus a live therapy canine. The methodology of this specific research includes analyzing human-animal interaction and bonding during AAT sessions over a course of 8 weeks. These sessions occur between one child and either a plush canine or the live therapy canine. There are 18 participants total, all enrolled in the University of Arkansas Access for Autism program, and each is randomly assigned to either the live therapy canine or the plush canine. Each participant attends weekly 30-minute therapy sessions, and caregivers are taught therapeutic strategies to practice at home each week with the child. These sessions are recorded and later analyzed by one of our team’s members. Each of our team’s members are certified to code participant behaviors seen in the recordings into quantifiable data using Johns Hopkins University 3 AAT Ethogram or OHAIRE Behavior Coding for Human-Animal Interaction Research System. This data will later be used to evaluate the findings of our research. I believe that this research can be highly applicable to the nursing practice or ASD treatment in general. There is no cure for ASD, but, if proven through research, animal-assisted therapy can be an effective tool in improving prosocial behavior and emotional regulation in those affected.

As I neared my time to decide on a thesis topic, all I knew was that I was mostly interested in pediatrics. I met with a few different possible mentors, but none excited me as much as this one now does. As seen by my extended explanation of my team’s research, I am very excited about this topic, but I don’t remember having much knowledge on the subject before meeting Dr. Kilmer. At University of Arkansas’s Nursing Science Day 2023, I was able to learn about Dr. Kilmer’s studies from her past honors research team, whose findings we are know building upon. I was immediately fascinated by their research, and I realized that it was exactly what I wanted for my honors thesis subject, including a focus on pediatrics. After hearing about her ongoing research of animal-assisted therapy for children with ASD, I emailed Dr. Kilmer and asked to join her next team. Thankfully, she said yes, and I am very grateful for this opportunity to work with her and be a part of innovative research that I am truly passionate about. Of course, everything comes with some challenges. I quickly realized this semester that it was very difficult to manage this research on top of my already difficult nursing classes. However, I found a balance and am going to be proactive by continuing my portion of the analysis over the summer. Even with the difficulties that pop up, Dr. Kilmer has made the experience so enriching. She continually helps with everything, and she tries to make the process as straight-forward as possible for us as a team. She organizes all of the sessions through the Access for Autism program, and she works to keep Gryffin, the trained therapy canine, on track for his sessions with the research participants, along with so much more. Mrs. Terria Hawley is also part of the nursing school’s faculty, and she helps with our analyses as well. As for what is next, we will be continuing to code participant behaviors to use for analyses, and we will conclude our research at the end of the Fall 2024 semester. I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Kilmer and the rest of our research team as we gain insight into the use of animal-assisted therapy as an effective intervention for autism spectrum disorder.