Résumé
Assisted-animal therapy is a rehabilitation method that includes a trained an imal in the patient’s therapeutic project, and relies on the presence of the animal, on its po tential of stimulation, motivation and contact. In the field of speech therapy, the practice is becoming popular and has many benefits for patients. Dogs are the most popular partner, thanks to their ability to decode human communication signals and adapt to human behavior. In our study, we wondered what influence animal-assisted therapy with dogs could have on the non-verbal communication of our patients. Non-verbal communication is a really important part of communication that includes, among other criteria, gesture, eye contact, emotional facial expressions, and voice modulation. Non-verbal communication provides infor mation about the interlocutor, i.e. to understand their state, their emotions, and to give an appropriate answer. Finally, non-verbal communication supports the development and struc turing of oral language.Method: we made a study with 11 young patients presenting difficulties or a disorder of the oral language or written language. For each patient, three sessions were filmed, in order to see a possible progression: a session without the dog, a session with the dog that stayed passive in the background, and a session in which the dog participated with the patient. The videos were then analyzed in order to qualitatively and quantitatively collect the non-verbal communication criteria targeted.Results: the results show that during the session with animal-assisted therapy, the patients demonstrated a greater number of smiles, laughter and brief and sustained eye contact,com pared to the ones where the dog was absent. Results are also visible on the sessions with the dog in “passive mode”, but they’re not as significative. We note a decrease in signs of inattention and psychomotor agitation, greater interest in the activity, more motivation, concentration, as well as taking the initiative during the sessions with animal-assisted therapy.Conclusion and perspectives: the practice of animal-assisted therapy with dogs in speech therapy sessions enriches the non-verbal communication of patients and has positive effects on their behavior. To generalize these results, it would be important to conduct this study with a larger sample size. Also, conducting it with patients with ADHD would surely yield interesting results, given the effects of animal-assisted therapy on patients with similar symptoms in our study.