Social Working Dogs Support to Children With Problematic School Absence

Children in the intervention group received dog-assisted support for 30 minutes per session, twice per week for 10-12 weeks. The process began with children meeting school dog with dog handlers either at their home or at school. During the intervention, children had physical contact with dogs as much as they wished and on consideration of dogs' welfare. The dog handler carried out some pedagogical tasks, such as children reading to the dog while the dog was next to the child or when its head was on the child's lap. The dog handler documented the process of each session in a protocol filled in after each session and observed the children on their educational tasks.

Children in the control group met special education teachers and received pedagogical tasks involving Swedish, mathematics, etc. Similar to the dog team, special education teachers documented the process and observed the performance of children's educational tasks.