Dog Phobia Intervention: A Case Study in Improvement of Physiological and Behavioral Symptoms in A Child with Intellectual Disability

ABSTRACT

Background: Children with intellectual disability are at risk for anxiety disorders involving intense physiological reactions and risky behavioral responses. Interventions have been identified in this field; however, assessment of underlying anxiety is limited and flawed.

Method: We implemented a single-subject case study using differential reinforcement to treat dog phobia in a boy with intellectual disability. We recorded elopement and compliance with goals and measured physiological expressions of stress: galvanic skin response, heart rate variability, temperature, and latency to calm down.

Results: After fifteen therapy sessions, the boy decreased elopement and noncompliance considerably and showed dramatic improvements in emotional self-regulation.

Conclusions: Future research should examine the utility of including biosensing measures in clinical applications and the relationship between physiological measures of anxiety and traditional questionnaires. Children with intellectual disability at risk for anxiety disorders should be tracked longitudinally to examine the effect of interventions on social-emotional well-being and self-regulation.

KEYWORDS:

• Intellectual disability
• phobia
• dog
• differential reinforcement
• physiological data
• autonomic nervous system

Acknowledgments

The authors give a special thanks to Theresa Hecmanczuk for proofreading the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This research was conducted in accord with prevailing ethical principles and was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Missouri.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.