BIS-Uncaster Farming, Saturday, Fabmary 26, 1994
Pets Soothe Children’s Negative Emotions
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
GLENMOORE (Chester Co.)
Feeling angry? Depressed?
Frustrated?
Cuddle up to a bunny. Or a goat.
Even an iguana tunning up and
down your arm is thought to ease
stress, calm nerves, and give you
that feeling of well being.
That’s what a pilot program has
discovered at Devereux, a school
for troubled youth.
“It’s amazing the difference a
pet can make in the life of these
kids,” said Roy Erdman, who
teaches at the Devereux’s Brandy
wine Center that houses about 100
boys between the ages of 7 and 16,
who mostly have been diagnosed
with emotional and developmental
disabilities.
The program is referred to as pet
facilitated therapy, but for centu
ries parents have known that a dog
or cat in a child’s life can be a
calming influence when facing
life’s tough battles.
From the school’s beginning,
the founder, Helena Devereux,
planned that a dog should always
be kept as a house pet
After Ed gives his chinchilla a dust bath, the pair spend
time together.
A dove rests momentarily on Les’s fingers before taking
a flight around the room.
But government policies on
cleanliness intervened. It seemed
easier to get rid of the dog than to
clean up the mud and shedding hair
that a dog might track in the house
or the flea bites a child might
contract. ■
So for years, no dog or other ani
mal crossed the threshhold of
Devereux grounds.
That all changed three years ago
when Roy Erdman, outdoor educa
tion specialist, instigated the pet
therapy program.
Erdman now has a small-scale
zoo set up on the grounds that cov
er 350 acres'.
Skeptical professionals are now
convinced that pets indeed have a
positive effect on the children.
Erdman said, “The behavioral
difference between the boys at the
zoo compared to elsewhere is like
day and night. Kids just do better
around animals. Animals are a
calming influence and help child
ren interact.”
Ideally, the hope is that children
will transfer their ability to care for
animals and maintain self-control
to their interaction with humans.
So far, the study does show that
the children working with the ani
mals have less emotional crises.
The therapy can also be used as cri
sis management in allowing kids
who are having a bad day to come
to the center and interact with the
animals.
Children involved in pet therapy
adopt an animataf their own. They
can chose either frdnr the offspring
of animals on the grounds or from
a pet store. But before they do so,
they must learn about the animal
by studying a skill card that
explains the care and characteris
tics of the animal.
It is that child’s responsibility to
care for the pet, and when released
from the school, the child takes the
pet along home if the parents
approve.
The children also participate in
local projects by talcing animals to
nursing homes or participating in
show and tell with students not
involved in pet therapy.
Quails and doves are popular
projects. Recently, the students
hatched four quail in an incubator.
Not only do the birds make inter
esting pets, but by watching, child
ren leant how doves make soft
nests from feathers and hear the
cooing sounds of a contented bird.
“Did you know this interesting
fact?” Louis, a student, asked a vis
itor at the center recently. “When
you see birds sitting on a wire and
their bellies are puffed out that
is really a pocket of air that forms
under their feathers to keep them
warm.”
Ed was eager to show how a
chinchilla takes a dust bath to clean
its fur. The dust is a mixture of
sand and talcum powder, and Ed
sees that'the chinchilla has a dust
bath weekly.
As one student trimmed the toe
nails of his rabbit, he explained
that the proper way to pick up the
rabbit is by its skin on the back of
its neck.
“Whiskers are important to rab
bits,” he said. “It helps them to
smell better. Some people trim
their rabbit’s whiskers, but 1 don’t
recommend it,” he said.
The student said that he and
some of his friends experiemented
by putting rabbits and guinea pigs
in the same cage and found that
they will groom each other.
A pet cemetary is located on the
grounds where children bury ani
mals that die and the students learn
to deal with grief as a natural pro
cess of life.
When students report to the
class, they must first do chores
such as changing water, emptying
feeders, and filling with fresh feed
before spending individual time
with an animal of their choice.
Erdman has nothing but praise
for the program. Initial fears that
some children might mistreat the
animals since cruelty to animals
can be a sign of emotional illness
have been unfounded.
“We started the program as a
demonstration to prove its worth.
Now, after three years, it has
proved its success and we are
expanding the program to other
campuses,” Erdman said.
The Devereux School was
founded by Helena Devereux, a
pioneer in the field of special edu
cation, and now has campuses in
13 states. It is considered the
largest not-for-profit provider of
mental health and developmental
disability treatment program in the
U.S. Sylvester Stallone was one of
its graduates.
Specialized treatment is avail
able for children, adolescents,
adults, and families. For more
information about the program,
call (215) 942-5900.
Les sits patiently while a dove crawls on his shoulders.
Even children with attention deficit disorders, display
remarkable patience and calmness when spending time at
the zoo.
It’s toe nail trimming time for this rabbit. Students who
participate in the pet therapy program must first learn the
pet’s requirements for housing, feeding, and handling.
This quail is a bit tamer than those in the wild and allows
students to observe It closely.
ig p > y.
students about the need to be careful that the Iguana’s fra
gile tail is not broken. Erdman said, “The behavioral differ
ence between the boys at the zoo compared to elsewhere is
like day and night. Kids Just do better around animals. Ani
mals are a calming influence and help children interact.”