An Analysis of the Relationship Between Education Assistance Dogs and the Attendance, Verbal Communication Utterances, and Maladaptive Behaviors of Self-Contained Special Education Students in One Florida School District

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the introduction of education assistance dogs (EAD) on the attendance, verbal communication utterances, and maladaptive behaviors of students on behavior intervention plans who were enrolled in self-contained, special education classrooms. Teachers in two elementary classrooms and one middle school classroom gathered data on the three areas of focus. The researcher then utilized a single subject design and corresponding line graphs to represent the data. The results indicated a positive trend in the scores for verbal communication utterances and maladaptive behaviors among targeted students after end introduction of the EAD. The results were inconclusive for student attendance. These results suggested that the large, urban, Central Florida school district in which the study was conducted may want to consider continuation of the EAD program to gather additional data