A Case Study Determining the Effects of Hippotherapy on Developmental Dysarthria
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Date
2010-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Hippotherapy is an approach to equine assisted therapy (EAT) that uses equine movement along with physical, occupational, or speech therapy treatment strategies (Håkanson, Möller, Lindström, & Mattsson, 2009). In speech-language pathology, the few existing studies focusing on hippotherapy have primarily used subjective measurements such as questionnaires (e.g., Borton & Ogburn 2009). These studies suggested that children who participated in hippotherapy were believed (by their parents and others) to experience improved speech and language skills, increased motivation to attend therapy sessions, and improved self-concepts (Macauley & Gutierrez, 2004). Increases in vocalizations have also been noted in non-verbal participants (Lehrman & Ross, 2001). This study is a single participant case study designed to examine the immediate effects of four hippotherapy sessions on objective measures [i.e., respiratory strength, vocal intensity (loudness) and the mean length of utterance (MLU)] of a person with developmental dysarthria, where developmental dysarthria refers to speech abnormalities due to chronic weakness of the speech musculature. Because no appropriate participant was found in time for data collection to be completed, the study goals were changed to piloting of procedures.
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Keywords
hippotherapy, developmental dysarthria