Parental perceptions of the effect of child participation in hippotherapy programme on overall improvement of child mental and physical wellbeing

Abstrakt

The equine-facilitated sessions for a group of kids under the preschool integrated unit were carried out at the Felin Experimental Farm, University of Life Sciences in Lublin from May
2009 till June 2010. The data of patients including their medical history and physician`s referral to the therapeutic horseback riding together with the 12 question-survey completed by parents provided the basis for evaluating the usability and appropriateness of the equine therapy in the subjective parental assessment. The study group comprised 14 people, i.e. 8 girls and 6 boys aged from 3.5 up to 6.5 years (x = 5.21 S = 1.12). Eight kids had infantile cerebral palsy (ICP, 57.14% of studied patients), two patients – autism (14.28%) and another two-psychomotor retardation, while one child was affected by a genetic disorder and one was blind. The equine-assisted services were conducted once a week. A planned number of hippotherapy ridings, that is 3–5 per month, was realized. A total number of 223 therapeutic sessions (28–39 a month) for children from integrated kindergarten was carried out. The average attendance rate (AAR) at the therapy sessions reached 72.39% (from the lowest 41.17 up to peak 100%) at S = 14.00. There were reported highly statistically significant differences between the AAR for the children with ICP (75.54%) and others (68.19%) that gave evidence that the parents of the former child group aimed to provide a more intensive horse-assisted therapy. All the parents answered the survey questions. Six children (42.9%) with ICP had attended the sessions for several years before, while 42.9% of the studied
group owned a pet, which naturally promoted emotional bonding with the horse. Only three children did not participate in other rehabilitation treatments. The first meeting with a horse and its surroundings elicited positive responses in most kids (over 85%), yet the length of the kid’s adaptive period varied. The parents of five patients (35.7%) reported lower susceptibility of their children to infections and diseases as a result of the equine therapy attendance, whereas the others did not observe any changes in this respect. Importantly, all the parents agree that their children balance, coordination and communicative goals (50% in all survey replies) have markedly improved due to hippotherapy as well. The information based on the parent surveys confirms that horseassisted therapy is effective in causing positive changes in kids physical and emotional sphere.