Our honors research team with Gryffin!

Author: Caroline Kilo | Major: Nursing | Semester: Fall 2024

Looking back on the past three semesters of our honors thesis project, I feel very proud of our effort and the results that we achieved. My thesis is in collaboration with two other students, Claire Little and Delaney Piantanida. Dr. Kilmer is our honors faculty mentor, and Mrs. Hawley serves as our committee member. We began in the Fall of 2023 and finished in the Fall of 2024. During our first semester, we met with Dr. Kilmer weekly to learn about animal assisted therapy and help train Gryffin. Gryffin is the sweetest black lab who is a certified therapy and service dog that knows over 30 commands and is able to participate in therapy sessions. We used Snuffles, a plush toy canine that looks very similar to Gryffin, as a control measure. During that semester, we also wrote our Honors Thesis Proposal. Our thesis title is Analyzing the Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Prosocial Behavior and Emotional Regulation in Children at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is important that we investigate and compare the effects of using a live therapy canine vs a plush toy canine in order to ensure that the effects of AAT are due to Gryffin and not just from Dr. Kilmer’s therapeutic interventions.

In the Spring of 2024, we learned about coding human-animal interactions and behaviors using the 3 AAT Observation Ethogram and the OHAIRE system. We used Qualtrics surveys and Excel spreadsheets to record our coded data. We earned our OHAIRE coding certifications in order to ensure strong inter-rater reliability and therefore valid data. We also attended Nursing Science Day with Dr. Kilmer since the symposium theme was “The State of the Science for Animal-Assisted Therapy: Implications for Research, Education, and Practice Across the HealthCare Continuum”. The symposium was filled with wonderful presentations and speakers, and we even got to meet the keynote speaker, Dr. Temple Grandin.

Throughout the Summer and Fall of 2024, our team coded videos of the participant sessions. The children either had Gryffin or Snuffles present in their therapy session in order to differentiate the data. Dr. Kilmer utilized two cameras throughout her therapy sessions with children in the Access for Autism Program at the University of Arkansas. These cameras captured the behaviors of the children and Gryffin, along with the interactions between the children, Dr. Kilmer, their caregiver, and Gryffin or Snuffles. Dr. Hong, a statistician at the University of Arkansas, turned our data into statistical analysis to show our results.

Statistically significant results from the 3 AAT Observation Ethogram, OHAIRE, and numerous surveys indicate that a live therapy canine successfully promotes prosocial behavior and emotional regulation in children at risk for ASD. The results favor the use of Gryffin over Snuffles in these sessions with participants. AAT is effective due to the use of Gryffin and not just the therapeutic interventions of Dr. Kilmer. The effects of AAT were seen immediately in the sessions and throughout daily life for the families.

Our completed honors thesis paper will be submitted for publication in a national journal. Dr. Kilmer has published her studies before, and she is truly making a difference in the lives of children and families with her groundbreaking research. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this amazing project. My group members and I have grown so much throughout these three semesters, and we hope to continue pursuing our new passion for research.