Research support for animal-assisted speech therapy
A few of my favorite open-source resources to get you started (not all are specifically speech therapy, but have information that would apply across related fields)….
Canine-Assisted Speech Therapy for Children: Caregiver and Therapist Perspectives Zhang et al, 2025
Exploring Animal-Assisted Therapy for Creating Rich Communicative Environments and Targeting Communication Goals in Subacute Rehabilitation Sherrill & Hengst, 2022
The effect of Animal-assisted therapy on prosocial behavior and emotional regulation in autistic children with varying verbal abilities: A pilot study Kilmer et al, 2025
Therapy dogs as trustworthy facilitators in language-based emotional concept interventions for adolescents with adjustment difficulties Ooi et al, 2025
(While effect size was not large in this short-term, small-n study, it did show social-emotional outcomes at least as good as a control group that was given a high-value tangible reward for participating instead of having time with a therapy dog)
Behavioral and Physiological Responses of Therapy Dogs to Animal-Assisted Treatment in an Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Program Shih et al, 2025
Can a Facility Dog Improve Inpatient Rehabilitation Engagement? A Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial Tropiano et al, 2025
(This one you do have to request from the author through a link on the site)
Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy for Anxiety Reduction in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review Brandao et al, 2025
(Helps dissect why so many studies of animal-assisted therapy are too poorly designed to show much effect but does have some positive outcomes to report)
Know another quality open-source research article about animal-assisted speech therapy or therapy dog welfare?