Pets could benefit autistic children
Researchers have reported that autistic children show improvements in certain aspects of prosocial behaviour following the introduction of pets into the family home.
Marine Grandgeorge - from the Centres Hospitaliers Régionaux et Universitaires de Brest, Bohars, France - and team discovered that the introduction of family pets resulted in improvements in sharing and comforting behaviour among autistic children.
The findings follow "human-pet reports on the improvement of prosocial behaviors in individuals with typical development," but to the researchers' knowledge "this is the first study showing an association between pet arrival and changes in prosocial behaviours."
The team studied two groups of autistic children, consisting of 12 who had acquired a family pet (mainly a dog or cat) after the age of 5 years and eight who had owned a family pet since birth. They found that children who acquired a family pet after the age of 5 years showed significant improvements for two aspects of behaviour: 'offering to share,' and 'offering comfort.'
The study is published in the open access peer reviewed journal Public Library of Science.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
