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Pawsitive Friendships Provides Animal Therapy to Students with Disabilities By Caleb Scott, Cronkite News
productive when the family dog was part of the sessions. “I’m not a therapist, I’m not a n a playground in Mesa, a group of teacher, just a mom with a passion to have children of various ages and abilities others succeed like my son did,” Tharpplays with several dogs and two Gaitanis says. miniature horses. Some run around with Facilities with educational and clinical day the animals while others just pet and hold programs for people with special needs, them. This is animal therapy. from early childhood to adult, contract Once a month, the Arizona organization with Pawsitive Friendships to bring trained Pawsitive Friendships brings therapy animals and handler teams to work with animals to A Place 4 Everyone Learning individuals at their facilities. Tosha says Center, a school to help students with the 2023 goal for Pawsitive Friendships physical, social, and emotional issues. was to serve 1,500 kids and the company Pawsitive Friendships was founded in 2014 has already helped over 1,600 kids in 22 different facilities. when the founder and CEO, Tosha TharpGaitanis, discovered that exercise routines When the animals arrived at A Place with her son, who has autism, were more 4 Everyone Learning Center, the
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children seemed immediately calmer, an observation confirmed by the instructors at the center who said the animals help children express themselves with a more tranquil demeanor and consider their actions before lashing out.
“The connection is all body language. It teaches them how to use that body language throughout their whole lives in their day-to-day,” says Karen Shields, senior manager at A Place 4 Everyone Learning Center. “It’s extremely impressive how the animals are able to bring that out more than we are as humans with our spoken language.” Shields has found that the kids interact more with the animals. “It’s a deep down soul want-to connect,” she said. Behavior therapist Danyelle Tarlowski, from Arizona Autism, helps children with autism learn appropriate behaviors at home and in public. “We can use the animals to say, ‘Hey the dog is sitting nicely, let’s sit nicely,’” says Danyelle. “A lot of times we use friends and peers to show behaviors that are good and in this case, we use the animals.” Tori Rimmer, a staff member at A Place 4 Everyone Learning Center, said that she notices a change in the children’s behavior the rest of the day after Pawsitive Friendships visits. She adds that the children immediately begin to look forward to the next time the animals will visit. The company currently has over 115 animals and has expanded to over 10 different species, including dogs, birds, horses, snakes and even an alpaca.
Pawsitive Friendships volunteer Sheila Tufano and her French bulldog, Winston, playing with students. (Photo by Hunter Fore/Cronkite News)
12 | DECEMBER 2023 | EPIC KIDS
Caleb Scott attends the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He expects to graduate in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minors in global studies and political science.
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