The Efficacy of Horse-assisted therapy on improving the social skills of child with autism and its impact on mother's quality of life and mental

Autism is a disorder of neural development, characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, restricted and repetitive behavior. The main purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Horse-assisted therapy on developing social skills for a child with autism and its impact on mother's quality of life and mental health. This was designed as a single subject study on a 7 year old boy with autism. Assessment tools were "the special booklet of social skills of mental retarded pre school students, “Social Skills Rating System (SSRS)”, “General Health Questionnaire GHQ”, and also “World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale" for measuring the mother's quality of life. The intervention program included Activities, playing with horses and riding a horse during fifteen weeks. Collected data from pre-test, post-test and follow-up assessment were analysed by ancova. The results showed that the Horse-assisted therapy could facilitate the development of Language skills, social skills, sensory and cognitive awareness, reduce problematic and stereotyped behaviors, and increase child's physical health, it can also improve mother's mental health, social functioning, quality of life, and reduces negative mood