Animals have helped many kids with autism improve their speech and social skills, but these cases have been largely isolated. Now the first scientific study of horse therapy finds its many benefits may have to do with rhythm.

A study of 42 children with autism, six to 16 years old, found that riding and grooming horses significantly bettered behavioral symptoms. Compared with kids who had participated in nonanimal therapy, those exposed to horses showed more improvement in social skills and motor skills, rated via standard behavioral assessment surveys, according to the study published in the February issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Psychologist Robin Gabriels of the University of Colorado Denver, who led the study, speculates that the calming, rhythmic motion of the horses played a role.

Rhythmic coordination issues underlie all the symptoms of autism, including repetitive behaviors and difficulty communicating, comments Robert Isenhower, a researcher at Rutgers University who was not involved with the study. Using drumming games, Isenhower has found that children with autism struggle more than typically developing children to keep a beat. This impairment affects unconscious social behaviors that most of us take for granted, such as pausing after questions or walking in step with others. “I think the horse might serve as a surrogate motor system for individuals with autism,” he says.

2 Comments

1. 1. RupertVanstersher 02:49 PM 7/10/12

   Autism: The Eusocial Hominid Hypothesis
   
   ASDs (autism spectrum disorders) are hypothesized as one of many adaptive human cognitive variations that have been maintained in modern populations via multiple genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Introgression from "archaic" hominids (adapted for less demanding social environments) is conjectured as the source of initial intraspecific heterogeneity because strict inclusive fitness does not adequately model the evolution of distinct, copy-number sensitive phenotypes within a freely reproducing population.
   
   Evidence is given of divergent encephalization and brain organization in the Neanderthal (including a ~1520 cc cranial capacity, larger than that of modern humans) to explain the origin of the autism subgroup characterized by abnormal brain growth.
   
   Autism and immune dysfunction are frequently comorbid. This supports an admixture model in light of the recent discovery that MHC alleles (genes linked to immune function, mate selection, neuronal "pruning," etc.) found in most modern human populations come from "archaic" hominids.
   
   Mitochondrial dysfunction, differential fetal androgen exposure, lung abnormalities, and hypomethylation/CNV due to hybridization are also presented as evidence.
   
   https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3dPqM3qgNSiY3p5TmFRMjhSekdyaV8wWUw0MTZiUQ
   
   A short video introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk_85vNaSMA
   
   The full 2-hour video presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6-6Naz-C0M

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2. 2. bucketofsquid 04:25 PM 7/13/12

   Does this mean that the rise in use of cars caused the increase in Autism? Prior to cars virtually everyone in Europe and North America was exposed to horses in some way.

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