Assistance Dogs and Autism Ranking:

Future Research

Summary of Existing Research

There is a limited amount of low-quality research evidence (three group studies and three single-case design studies with three or more participants) into the use of assistance dogs for autistic individuals. There is no research on the use of assistance dogs with autistic adults.

This research suggests that assistance dogs may provide several benefits to autistic children and young people, and their parents and carers. Those benefits include increased safety, reduction of parental stress, an increased tolerance of dogs and greater opportunities for social inclusion.

However, because the quality of that research is so poor we cannot determine whether assistance dogs actually provide any benefits to any autistic children and young people, or their parents and carers. We must wait for further research of sufficiently high quality to be completed.

Recommendations for Future Research

There is a need for small-scale research that uses quantitative methodologies (such as experimental trials) rather than qualitative methodologies (such as parental satisfaction surveys). 

That research should 

• Compare assistance dogs with other interventions, such as therapy dogs, which are designed to provide the same benefits.
• Identify if specific groups on the autism spectrum are more likely to benefit from assistance dogs than other groups on the spectrum.
• Identify if assistance dogs have any beneficial or harmful effects in the medium to long term.
• Involve autistic people (and parents and carers) in the design, development and evaluation of those studies.

If this small-scale research demonstrates benefits, further, large-scale research may be justified.

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Jan 2019

Next Review

01 Oct 2024