Horse Therapy for Special Needs Patients
Horse therapy targets patients with special needs including children and young adults to help in promoting social, psychological as well as educational growth. The target has conditions like autism, anxiety, dementia, mental development delay, depression, Down syndrome, brain injuries and trauma, abuse problems and many other mental health problems. This population has fears that should be overcome, self-esteem that need to be built up, and confidence that ought to be inspired. Some of the children do not have much control and this therapy can provide movement control.
Benefits of Horse Therapy
There are many ways through which the children and adults with special needs benefit from horse therapy including provision of better focus of movement, thereby learning to indirectly concentrate better. In addition to motor coordination, the target group benefit with improved balance, posture, self-esteem, muscle tone as well as self-confidence. Kids that speak with difficulties are instructed to make use of their own words when commanding the horse, and as a result, they utilize the right words, eventually improving their confidence, and developing their speech. Moreover, their social skills improve with respect to other humans. Therefore the horse therapy is a sure way of assisting the disabled to be enabled.
Importance of Horse Therapy
Information regarding the importance of horse therapy is very crucial to the entire public. More specifically, parents as well as individuals that care for the population with special needs can find this information very helpful as it directly affects their loved ones. For example, every parent wants to have a relationship and some sort of bonds and connections with all children. Whenever the parents realize that any one of their children has special need, they are never sure how they will ever have any constructive with the affected child. The horse therapy can help in reducing these fears of the unknown as it helps the population with the special need accept themselves and become better. The parents as well as people caring for others with special needs are scared of the unknown, and they often believe that they do not know how to help the patients communicate better as well as focus their efforts on their social, cognitive and emotional skills. Most of the patients lack ability as well as confidence to connect with their peers and even lack connections with their parents and caregivers.
Communicating the Benefits of Horse Therapy
The main approach that should be made to the parents as well as the care providers of the patients with special need is to provide them with the right information regarding the benefits of horse therapy and help them access the available programs. Insufficient information is a great turn off of the patient. Lack of answers to their many questions, will make them not trust the therapy, which will make them shy away from using it. Understanding the audience impacts the utilization of rhetoric appeals as it influences the word choice as well as the communication channel that will be utilized. Parents are more likely to trust communication forums where they can pose questions and anticipate well researched answers. Clarity through which information as well as argument in support of horse therapy for special needs population is presented should be derived from considerations of the audience, who are the parents and caregivers of children and young adults with special needs. This audience requires information they can rely on as it directly involves their loved ones.
