Possibilities to use the canistherapy for children with special educational needs in the rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities of ARPIDA, o.s.

This bachelor thesis is focused on possibilities to use the canistherapy in the centre of ARPIDA, o.s. An aim of the research was to find out an effectiveness of the canistherapy for children with special educational needs in the context of a comprehensive rehabilitation system. To collect data, I chose following methods: a direct participant observation, an uncontrolled interview and a content analysis of the data collection. I led interviews with physiotherapists, a psychologist, a head of the day care centre and with parents of the children from the research sample. The observed sample consisted of four children with special educational needs aged 11, 14, 15 a 21 years. All the children attended the day care centre of ARPIDA, o.s. Children´s case studies, an actual course of the canistherapy including a picture file, expressions of individual experts including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the canistherapy at each child with the special educational needs, are recorded in the practical part of my bachelor thesis. The most effective method at the children with the cerebral palsy is an AAT method in the form of a positioning. The effectiveness of the canisterapy was recorded here mainly in the motor area. The most significant indicator of the effectiveness of the canistherapy at those children was releasing of their spastic muscles. Results of the observation then confirmed positive emotional moods of children during the canistherapy. At a child with ADHD syndrome the AAA method was used, through which it came, during the canistherapy, to an improvement of the ability to concentrate an attention and to an overall pacification. The effectiveness of the canistherapy was evident even in the area of the fine motor and communication abilities of children. I suppose that findings of the thesis can become a guidance and an inspiration for more frequent visits of future canistherapeutic teams, which will decide to work with children in the centre of ARPIDA