Short paper: Pilot study of the effect of the presence of an animal-assisted education dog in a school setting on the selective attention capacities of adolescents with atypical development

Abstract Background : Animals in educational contexts have been linked to improved learning, motivation and attention, particularly for youths with neurodevelopmental disorders. While animal-assisted education (AAE) dog programs show promising results, little is known about their effects on core cognitive functions such as selective attention. Our pilot study investigated whether daily exposure to an AAE dog influenced visual search performances of adolescents with atypical development (AD) and compared them to their typically developing (TD) peers. Methods : Two groups of adolescents – an AD group (n = 8) exposed to an AAE dog in a specialized education program and a TD group (n = 13) in mainstream education not exposed to an AAE dog, were assessed using a visual search task. Participants were instructed to detect specific targets (dog or human faces or cars) among distractors and were assessed at two time points: before the AAE dog’s arrival and one month later. Results : TD participants outperformed AD participants in response accuracy and speed. In Session A, both groups showed comparable performances, while AD participants’ performances remained stable over time and did not vary according to stimulus type. In Session B, TD participants improved their accuracy for the car target, despite making more hesitations, and outperformed AD participants for all targets, resulting in a wider accuracy gap between both groups, with no differences in completion latencies or hesitations. Conclusion : These findings suggest limited effects of an AAE dog on AD participants’ selective attention. Further research needs to investigate longer exposures.