Group equine therapy: optimising therapy for people with ASD

Therapies using the horse can be considered as a set of re-educational techniques that act to overcome sensory, motor, cognitive and behavioural damage, through a recreational-sporting activity, which has the horse as its medium (Citterio, 1991, p.20). In the new American Classification of Mental Disorders, the DSM-V, autism and other syndromes were absorbed into a single diagnosis, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The change reflected the same condition with two groups of symptoms: deficits in communication and social interaction; a pattern of restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests. This book proposes equine therapy as a psychomotor practice, structured in group sessions, to optimise the therapy applied to people with ASD, seeking to assess the characteristics of the practitioners in the group, through their behaviour, attitudes and learning, with the aim of promoting reciprocal social interaction, intentionality of action, the notion of individuation and sensory organisation of the practitioners.