Editorial: Children and Companion Animals: Psychosocial, Medical and Neurobiological Implications (original) (raw)

2018, Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Editorial on the Research Topic Children and Companion Animals: Psychosocial, Medical, and Neurobiological Implications This Research Topic presents experiences with companion animals provided to children in varied settings. Methods include monitoring of the ongoing interaction of children with companion animals, or conducting interviews or surveys, as well as experimental interventions where changes occurring with the presence of the animal are assessed. Children in Austria, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, and the United Kingdom, as well as a minority from the United States, are represented in these studies. aNiMals iN EduCatioNal CoNtExts Nakajima contrasts two approaches: incorporating animals into school curricula or employing them in interventions to facilitate specific learning. Animal-rearing is a Japanese educational tradition, specified by the Japanese government in the course of study for formal elementary education. Matsuda (1, 2), a science educator, laid the theory and methods showing the value for children of rearing animals; it thus became a method of teaching. "Education through assisting animals, " embeds animalrearing within formal education as an educational tool. Koda et al. describe how some classrooms integrate rearing goats into instruction at urban schools in Japan. Children share responsibility for feeding, cleaning, and caring for the goats, while working with teachers. Teachers view experience with goats as beneficial to the children. Challenges during holidays and weekends require cooperation among faculty and parents. Some teachers would be cautious about recommending goat-keeping to other schools unless they were very well-prepared. More conventionally for animal-assisted education, Schretzmayer et al. tested an intervention using a dog to facilitate reading performance and physiological relaxation of third graders lacking reading proficiency. Although a calming effect of the dogs might have been expected due to an oxytocin effect (3), the presence of a dog was associated only with short-term improvements in reading performance, and small changes in cortisol and behavior, for these children with low reading skills. PEt aNiMals for ChildrEN Although most exposure of children to pets is at home, exactly how children interact with the pets at home is unknown. Westgarth et al. employed a large database to assess dog-walking by children