Is animal-assisted intervention effective in improving the perceived difficulties of Hong Kong students with special educational needs in mainstream schools?

Authors:

Shui Lan WAN, Shan Shan CHENG

Pages: 17-27

Abstract:

This study investigated the effectiveness of an animal-assisted intervention (AAI) program on the personal and social difficulties of Hong Kong students with special educational need (SEN). Thirty-five teachers were invited to participate and finally identified three challenges faced by SEN students: self-regulation, social inclusion, and self-esteem. After that, an AAI program was implemented to investigate its effectiveness on tackling these three challenges. Thirty-two SEN students from a local secondary school were recruited with the mean age of 12.97. The study used a pre-test/post-test design, with participants completing a short questionnaire before and after the intervention of AAI. The Chinese Version of Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) measure self-esteem; the social inclusion subscale of The Perceptions of Inclusion Questionnaire (PIQ) measure social inclusion while Self-Regulation Questionnaire measure self-regulation. Paired sample t-test was deployed to examine the effectiveness of the intervention. Student participants demonstrated significant increases in self-esteem and social inclusion while slight increase in self-regulation. These findings suggest that AAI may be a feasible way to enhance the health and well-being of SEN students. Future studies with a larger and more diverse sample size, and the inclusion of the perspectives of SEN students can enhance the reliability and generalizability of the findings.