Effect of Animals on Eye Contact and Vocalizations of Elderly Residents in a Long Term Care Facility

Occupational therapists working with the elderly in long term care facilities are concerned with maximizing individuals involvement with their environment. One method of eliciting involvement is through the use of live animals. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effectiveness of a live puppy in eliciting eye contact and vocalizations from residents in a long term care facility. A repeated measured design with 18 subjects in two stimulus conditions, a live puppy, and a photograph of a puppy, was used. While the results did not reveal significant increases in eye contact or vocalizations during the live puppy condition when compared to the photograph condition, a more global involvement with the social environment was noted during the live puppy condition. Implications of these findings were discussed.