7 Ways an Autism Service Dog Could Benefit Your Child in Special Education!

Do you have a child with autism that receives special education services from your school district? Did you know that several agencies now train service dogs to help people with autism become more independent? Would you like to learn about 7 ways that this could help your child with autism? Then this article is for you; learn about autism service dogs, and tasks that they can perform to help children become more independent.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal as: any animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. Tasks typically performed by service animals include guiding people with impaired vision, . . . providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair or retrieving dropped items.

While autism service dogs are new, they are proving to be very helpful to children with autism. The thing to remember is that the dog must be task trained to specifically help your child, in order to be given protection under the ADA.