Participant characteristics by condition.

Research with controlled or crossover designs in animal-assisted therapy have largely used control groups receiving no treatment or treatment as usual, which can potentially inflate the effects of these interventions. It is therefore not always clear whether this type of therapy has a positive effect on, for example, the social skills of children with special support needs. To address this, the current study compared children (7-16 years, n =  65) with autism or Down syndrome who received five sessions of dog-assisted therapy (n =  24; 9 female) with an active control group who received five similar sessions of robot dog-assisted therapy (n =  21; 8 female) and a no-treatment control group (n =  20; 8 female). The robot dog was capable of performing autonomous behavior and responding to the child’s actions and verbalizations. Using parental questionnaires, we assessed children’s social and emotional skills before and after the therapy sessions or waiting period and included a follow-up measurement after 4-6 weeks. On a group level, multilevel analyses showed that children who received dog-assisted therapy improved significantly more in terms of emotional attunement and emotion regulation than children in the two other conditions. No significant differences were found for social confidence, conversational attunement, social cognition, and social motivation. Change from post-test to follow-up was also less apparent. Yet, on a more individual level, when looking at the Reliable Change Index (RCI), most of the highest RCIs (within the 90th percentile) were found in the dog-assisted therapy group. In contrast, most of the lowest RCIs (within the 10th percentile) were found in the robot-assisted group. We discuss the pros and cons of a more individualized approach in this field of study and propose a possible alternative by focusing on interaction dynamics.

在动物辅助治疗（Animal-Assisted Therapy）领域，采用对照设计或交叉设计的相关研究大多以未接受治疗或常规治疗的个体作为对照组，该设计可能会夸大此类干预的实际效果。因此，此类疗法是否能对有特殊支持需求儿童的社交技能等方面产生积极影响，目前尚无定论。
为解决这一问题，本研究针对65名7至16岁的孤独症（Autism）或唐氏综合征（Down Syndrome）患儿展开对照研究：其中24名患儿（9名女性）接受了5次犬类辅助治疗（Dog-Assisted Therapy）疗程，21名患儿（8名女性）作为主动对照组接受了5次相似的机器狗辅助治疗（Robot Dog-Assisted Therapy）疗程，另有20名患儿（8名女性）作为未治疗对照组。
该机器狗可执行自主行为，并能对儿童的动作与言语表达做出回应。本研究采用家长评定问卷，分别在治疗或等待周期前后对儿童的社交与情绪技能进行评估，并在4至6周后开展追踪测量。
在群体层面，多层分析（Multilevel Analyses）结果显示，接受犬类辅助治疗的患儿在情绪调谐（Emotional Attunement）与情绪调节（Emotion Regulation）方面的改善程度显著优于另外两组受试儿童。而在社交自信（Social Confidence）、会话调谐（Conversational Attunement）、社会认知（Social Cognition）与社交动机（Social Motivation）方面未发现显著组间差异。后测至追踪测量阶段的变化同样不甚明显。
然而在个体层面，通过可靠变化指数（Reliable Change Index, RCI）分析可见，处于第90百分位及以上的最高可靠变化指数大多见于犬类辅助治疗组。与之相反，处于第10百分位及以下的最低可靠变化指数则大多见于机器狗辅助治疗组。
本研究讨论了该领域内采用更个体化研究方法的优劣，并提出以互动动态（Interaction Dynamics）为核心的潜在替代研究方向。