Brandy and Val

A few weeks ago we talked about some breakthrough moments we had during our sessions and wondered whether we were going to be able to repeat the process of having two, very nervous autistic children who were scared of Brandy take a walk with her.  Well, I am glad to report that INDEED, these same children were very willing to walk with my sister and had an equally good time.  One of the kids even held mom’s hand and patted it.  Awesome.  We wonder how this translates, if it does, to other aspects of their lives.  We hope it does.  Another big moment for Brandy occurred when the sole remaining child in the class who wouldn’t acknowledge her agreed to wave “hi” and “bye” and looked at her when he did this.  He even kind of agreed to maybe touch her next week.  Wouldn’t that be great.

As for me, well, I “flew solo” today.  The other dog I normally work the room with was absent so it was up to me to carry the day.  I think I did a great job working with so many children and dad keeps calling me a star, so it must be true.  We did all my favorite activities:  walking with the children; taking treats from them; being brushed by them; playing the cup game in which I get to find my treat and playing GET MINNIE where I retrieve my mini-Val toy from a basket and bring it over to the person calling my name.  It was a good day.

I think we’re ready for much deserved naps.

Tags: AAT, animal assisted therapy, autistic children, BRANDY AND VAL, children with autism, pet therapy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Brandy and Val comments, pet therapy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.