Syllabus Information

1. General information

The Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) subject seeks to guide the Occupational Therapist to be able to work in a holistic way and complement the usual therapies with new work tools. . It will reflect on the importance of the use of animals in therapy, including their ability to motivate and develop motor skills, cognitive and emotional skills, enhance social skills and interaction, and foster responsibility and care. This subject is related to other subjects of Psychology and Sociology, and aims to provide the student with the possibility of developing new lines of research. In addition, Animal Assisted Therapy contributes to SDG 3 (Health and Wellness), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 15 (Life of Terrestrial Ecosystems).

2. Learning results

Upon completion of the Animal Assisted Therapy subject, the student is expected to demonstrate the following learning results:

1. Analyse, synthesize and relate the fundamental concepts in AAT techniques in order to understand the importance of their use in occupational therapy and their impact on the health and well-being of individuals.
2. Know and understand the different AAT techniques applied to the health field, and to be able to assess their benefits and limitations in clinical practice.
3. Effectively apply the concepts learned in the subject in the field of Occupational Therapy, using AAT techniques as a complement to the usual therapies.
4. Demonstrate skills in bibliographic documentation, using correctly the Vancouver standards and applying them in the research and practical work of the subject.
5. Acquire theoretical and practical knowledge in AAT Techniques applied to research in Occupational Therapy., and be able to use them for the development of new lines of research in this field.

3. Syllabus

The proposed program, according to the distribution by semesters (and responsible areas), is as follows:

First semester (Sociology):

• Origin and History of Animal Assisted Therapy.
• Spanish and foreign institutions of reference in this field.
• Pets and socialization processes.
• Supervised internships.

Second semester (Basic Psychology):

• Intervention frameworks in AAR.
• Animal behaviour and learning. Ethics and animal welfare in AAR.
• AAR and Mental Health.
• Supervised Internships.

4. Academic activities

The program offered to the student to help them achieve the expected results includes the following activities  Theoretical face-to-face classes (25 h). Group class work on the contents to be covered. Discussions and text commentary.

Three weeks per semester, 4 hours per week.

Practical classes and theoretical-practical seminars (25 h). Supervised internship, 2 weeks per semester, 4 hours per week.

Teaching assignments and other activities (25 h): Presentation of an individualized work through which it will be possible to carry out a continuous evaluation of the evolution of the teaching-learning process of each student. One week per semester, 4 hours.

Personal study and evaluation (50 h)

5. Assessment system

The subject offers two evaluation modalities for the student:

Continuous evaluation method: requires 80% attendance to the theoretical sessions and 100% attendance to the practical sessions . Students who are unable to attend the practical sessions must submit a similar substitute practical.

In addition, they must submit two papers (one per semester, individually or in a group of up to 3 members) in Vancouver style with a maximum length of 2000 words and present them in class. Each paper will be weighted at 50%, 60% for the dossier and 40% for the presentation.

Global Test Mode: for those who cannot follow the continuous evaluation mode, there will be a global test of theoretical-practical questions on the contents of the subject. The test will be of an objective type and the formula Right answers-(Errors/Options-1) will be applied.